Goulash "beef roulade style"

Ingredients for 10 servings:

• 1.6 kg topside beef
• 200 g smoked bacon, streaky
• 2 onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 bell peppers, red
• 500 g bunched carrots
• 200 g gherkins
• 200 ml pickle juice from the gherkins
• 8 sprigs of thyme
• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil or sunflower oil
• 4 bay leaves
• 50 g mustard, medium hot or hotter, or 1:1 mixed
• some salt and pepper, black from the mill
• some paprika powder, sweet or hot
• some sugar
• 500 ml red wine, dry
• 1 ¾ liters vegetable broth or half vegetable and half beef broth
• 750 g dumpling dough for potato dumplings, half and half
• 2 tbsp clarified butter
• Cornstarch, approx. 1 – 2 tsp

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 3 hours

with potato dumpling croutons

Rinse the beef, pat dry, and dice, then dice the bacon. Peel and finely dice the onions and garlic. Halve, trim, rinse, and dice the bell peppers. Trim, peel, wash, and slice the carrots. Slice the gherkins. Rinse the thyme, shake dry, and pluck the leaves from the stalks. Fry the bacon cubes in a large casserole dish, then remove them. Heat the rapeseed or sunflower oil in the bacon fat and brown the beef cubes in batches, stirring occasionally. Add the bacon cubes and the prepared vegetables, except for the gherkin slices. Add 3/4 of the thyme leaves and fry briefly. Then add the gherkin slices, bay leaves, and mustard, and season with a little salt, several turns of freshly ground black pepper, a little sugar, and a pinch of paprika. Then add the red wine, stock, and gherkin juice, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for about 1 3/4 hours. Shape the potato dumpling dough into a rectangle (20 x 30 cm) and cut into approximately 54 cubes. Heat the clarified butter in a large nonstick pan and fry the potato dumpling cubes in batches. Swirl the pan frequently or fry the dumpling cubes while turning them over. Mix the cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of water until smooth and thicken the goulash. Season the goulash to taste, adjusting seasoning if necessary, and serve with the potato dumpling croutons and the remaining thyme leaves.