Veal goulash with chestnuts, pumpkin and mushrooms

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1.2 kg veal for braising (roast, nut, etc.)
• 200 g onion(s), red
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 piece(s) ginger, 2 cm
• 200 ml dry rosé wine
• 2 tbsp instant flour
• 500 ml chicken broth
• 1 can tomatoes, chopped
• 1 small chili pepper(s), chopped
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp cardamom powder
• 2 carnations
• 3 bay leaves
• 300 g Hokkaido pumpkin(s) or butternut squash, cut into pieces, without seeds, unpeeled
• 200 g chestnuts, vacuum-packed or from a can
• 25 g dried porcini mushrooms
• Oil, neutral for frying
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours

Autumnal, spicy, low in calories and a bit cross-cooking

Wash the meat, pat dry, and cut into fairly small cubes. Brown the meat in batches on all sides in a heavy cast-iron pot with a little oil. Remove the meat from the pot after browning. Brown the peeled and chopped onions, crushed garlic, and finely chopped ginger in the pan’s drippings. Add a little more oil, if necessary. Deglaze with the rosé wine and let it almost reduce. Now sprinkle the instant flour over the meat, stir, and sauté. Deglaze with the stock. Add the meat, the chopped tomatoes, and stir. Stir in all the spices, cover, and simmer the goulash over low heat for 1 hour. Stir occasionally to loosen the residue from the bottom of the pot. Add a little more stock, if necessary. After an hour, add the dried mushrooms, the pre-cooked chestnuts, and the pumpkin cubes, and continue cooking for about 30 minutes, until everything is tender. At the end of the cooking time, the meat should be tender and the sauce should be thickened and creamy. All the sinewy parts of the veal are buttery soft. Serve with boiled potatoes, wide ribbon noodles, gnocchi, or fried potato dumplings. Enjoy with a dry German rosé from the Palatinate or Baden region. Since this recipe is intended as a crossover, feel free to try the following: replace the veal with lean pork neck, chestnuts with water chestnuts, porcini mushrooms with shiitake mushrooms, and pumpkin with sweet potato. I wouldn’t change much about the spices, except for adding a touch of cinnamon or five-spice blend. Bon appetit!