COOKBOOK/A TABLE - Quentin's Ghoulish Goulash

Anyone I’ve ever talked to about Dark Shadows (and the occasions have been many; the conversations long) has invariably told me how they used to race home after school to watch the 60’s Gothic soap opera in syndication. 

Certainly, I did. I kept a diary back then (around the fourth grade) too and when there wasn’t much to report about school, I filled in the pages with episode recaps!

For the uninitiated...the perpetually inclement, spectrally lit Dark Shadows was about Barnabus Collins, an elegantly creepy vampire with a soul, who actually suffered from guilt and had feelings for many of his victims. But there was also the true heroine of the show, Victoria Winters, who came as a governess to the great ancestral home of Collinwood, somewhere in the wilds of Maine, and was put through every trial imaginable (including an actual witch trial, when she was sent back to the year 1795 during a séance).

And of course, there was Quentin Collins, the werewolf who charmed hearts even as they were being torn from their host bodies.

So, with that appetizing prospect in mind, I wish you a wickedly wonderful Happy Hallowe’en! I hope you enjoy Quentin’s Ghoulish Goulash pulled from The Dark Shadows Cookbook. There are better goulashes out there (feel free to submit one here!), but this recipe is definitely among the more palatable ones found in the truly ghastly collection. Clam-Pourri, anyone? Beef and Olive Loaf? Enter if you dare!

The recipe calls for a pressure cooker, but I don’t have a pressure cooker—in the event that you don’t either, below I’ve added the simple method of using a Dutch oven instead. And oh yes, I add some paprika to the goulash and half a cup of beer to the gravy!

Quentin’s Ghoulish Goulash
Serves Four

Ingredients
Goulash
2 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 lbs beef stewing meat, cubed
1onion, sliced

2 tablespoons paprika (my addition)
1 teaspoon parsley flakes (or fresh!)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup tomato juice
1 cup water
4 small potatoes, cut in half
4 small carrots, cut in half
1 cup tomatoes, drained
Paste
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup of water

Pressure Cooker Method
Heat pressure cooker, add margarine and brown meat. Add onion, salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley. Place potatoes, carrots and tomatoes over meat. Mix ½ cup tomato juice and half a cup of water and pour on top of combination. Cover securely and place pressure regulator on vent pipe. Cook 15 minutes at 15 lbs pressure. Cool cooker at once. This can be done by placing the cooker under cold running water in the sink. The hissing sound of pressure being released will stop and then the cover can be safely opened. Make a paste of flour and water. Stir into stew to thicken.

Dutch Oven Method
Heat the Dutch oven, add margarine and brown meat. Add onion, salt, paprika, and pepper. Place potatoes, carrots and tomatoes over meat. Mix ½ cup tomato juice and half a cup of water and pour on top of combination. Cover and simmer your goulash over a low flame for three hours. Add parsley. Then make the paste of flour and water and stir into stew.


Ghoulish Gravy
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups liquid stock
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons enriched flour
½ cup beer

Method
Remove meat and vegetables from pan. Skim off fat from top of remaining liquid. In a measuring glass, put 1/4 cup cold water in 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir until smooth. Pour slowly into stew gravy, stirring constantly over medium heat until gravy bubbles. Add half a cup of beer to the gravy. Lower flame and cook 5 minutes or so until smooth, stirring occasionally.



Thanks to spendwithpennies.com for the photo.