Travel Food Inspiration

Goulash Zuppen - the delightful stew I had after 5 days of trekking in the Polish Mountains and today I was reminded of that trip. It is amazing what makes you think about the food from your travels. Here is a short account of something that gave me a flashback.

This morning I made an incredibly delicious 'Beef Stew' in the slow cooker. Here is the recipe:

• 450g stewing steak in cubes
• 3 large parsnips
• 3 large carrots
• 3 stick of celery
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 potatoes
• Handful of green beans
• 200g of mushroom quartered.
• Few bay leaves
• Couple of bouquet garni
• Salt
• Pepper
• Quite a bit of paprika
• Quite a squirt of tomato puree
• 400ml of beef stock
• 350ml of red wine 

Chuck the steak into a plastic bag with a couple of spoons of plain flour and give it a good shake.  when it is all coated tip it out into a frying pan and fry off to make it brown all over. (You need to slightly caramelise it - helps with the flavours). Once fried tip it into the bowl on your slow cooker and scrape in the stuck bits from the bottom of the plan (I'm sure I got this from Nigel Slater).

Chop up the veg into bite size pieces and chuck it all into the bowl with the herbs, wine and stock.

Crank the Slow Cooker up to high and tuck in to it about 8 hours later.

In the infamous words of those clever meerkats 'Simples'.

So why did this remind me of my travels? I think it was the paprika and tomato puree.

Here's the story. I  had been out trekking in the Tatras Mountains of Poland for 5 days. Carrying everything on my back and trekking from hut to hut. The food in the mountain huts was truly amazing. Something that I now realise is the generally accepted norm in mountain huts the world over. You need good food when you are trekking in the mountains.

The last day of the trek we came back out of the forests into Zakopane, the beautiful Polish 'Apline' resort. About a 15 minute walk up the road was a rather inviting restaurant, all made from logs and looking well, rather comfortable. So in we went. And ordered up the food. My choice, amongst a few other things such as pirogi was Goulash Zuppen. One of the best meals I had in Poland. IT was a meaty, tomatoey delight that went down very well with a couple of large beers.

Today, eating my beef stew I had wonderful flash backs to that restaurant and to that trip. I was out trekking in the Tatras Mountains again, I was enjoying a beer in a mountain hut over looking the peaceful mountain ridges, I was back in that restaurant tucking into my Goulash Zuppen.

What reminds you of your travels? What food has reminded you of a moment when you are abroad?