Slow-Cooked Spicy Goulash

August. The fireweed is topping out. The summer clock running down. I'm writing the book's middle chapters — the pandemic chapters, the chapters about COVID nursing, about the first death, about the mask marks on my face, about the porch drop-offs for Lourdes, about the isolation that taught me the difference between alone and lonely. The writing is harder here than in the floor chapters — the pandemic is recent, the memories are raw, the distance between the experience and the telling is measured in months, not years, and the months are not enough distance, the telling too close to the living.

But I write anyway. The writing that is too close is also the writing that is most honest, the words that haven't been processed into polish, the rough edges that are the real edges, the splinters that say: this happened. It was hard. I am telling you how hard it was because the telling is the sharing and the sharing is the book's purpose.

I made mechado while writing the pandemic chapter — the beef stew, the warm, tomato-rich stew that I batch-cooked during lockdown. The mechado was the pandemic's comfort food, the stew that filled Tupperware containers and traveled to porches and was eaten through glass. Writing the pandemic chapter while eating the pandemic food. The past in the present. The present holding the past. The stew holding both.

The mechado I made during lockdown was always about the slowness — the hours the beef spent softening in tomato, the way the whole apartment filled with something that felt like safety. This goulash carries that same warmth, that same patience. It’s the kind of stew you batch-cook on a hard writing day, ladle into containers, and leave on porches for the people you love but cannot touch. It’s the stew that holds both the past and the present, and it tastes like surviving.

Prep Time: 25 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 25 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup uncooked egg noodles
Sour cream, for serving

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, brown the beef cubes on all sides, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to the slow cooker.
Build the base. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, beef broth, onion, garlic, paprika, smoked paprika, caraway seeds, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and bay leaf to the slow cooker. Stir to combine.
Add the vegetables. Layer the potatoes, carrots, and bell pepper over the meat mixture. Stir gently.
Slow cook. Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours, until the beef is fork-tender and the vegetables are soft.
Cook the noodles. During the last 30 minutes of cooking, prepare the egg noodles according to package directions. Drain.
Finish and serve. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve the goulash over egg noodles, topped with a dollop of sour cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow-Cooked Spicy Goulash — The Stew That Held the Pandemic and the Present