Goulash Anglasie

Goulash Anglaise is one of those ‘combination’ dishes, i.e. a Hungarian goulash adapted to an English idea, so it is neither authentic English nor authentic Hungarian, but a combination of both. You could argue that is therefore neither one thing nor the other, but I think this is one of the masterpieces of winter cooking.

650g diced beef (or any other meat, if you prefer: with pork or even chicken/brown turkey, but for these you might need to reduce the cooking time)

You will need for the marinade:
3 cups of dry red wine
1 chopped chili pepper
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 Tablespooons oil
teaspoon of ground paprika
mix ingredients, pour over beef in a bowl. Cover overnight in fridge or for 4 hours.

You will need for the covering:
6-8 large potatoes
lots of grated Cheddar cheese (if you can’t get Cheddar, use a combination of Emmenthal and Gouda, or any similar cheese)
fresh leaf spinach, enough to cover baking dish twice
a tabelspoon (or more) of milk

You will need for the filling:
cooking oil (preferably olive, but can be any kind)
1 chopped courgette/zucchini
1 choppped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 chopped red pepper
2 chopped large tomatoes.
1-1.5 litres fresh beef/chicken stock, lightly salted.
I tablespoon tomato concentrate.
pinch of marjoram
pinch of oregano
pinch of thyme

Peel the potatoes and boil them. While they are boiling, soften the onions and peppers with some oil in a pan. Take them out (and put into another suacepan, or put aside), take the beef out of the marinade, and rolled in plain flour before browning the beef. Then return onions and peppers and add other ingredients of filling, the beef, and the marinade, with a little oil, cover pan with lid and cook slowly for about ten minutes or so.

Take the boiled potatoes and mash them with fork, add milk, carry on mashing, add more milk, until you get a smooth consistency. Do not liquidise or blend.

Layer all the ingredients: the filling, then a layer of spinach, then mashed potato, then more filling, more spinach and then more mashed potato, in a baking dish. Sprinkle with about half the cheese on top.

Put in a low to moderate oven for 1 1/2 hours. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and bake for a further 10 mins.