 Anywhere in the world when you make beef stew, you basically take a great big pot fill it full of tough beef and aromatic liquid and then simmer until everything's tender. That's it. So the question always becomes, well, what flavors should you add? And the answer is usually local flavors, whether you're in Mexico or Hungary. So here's what I'm thinking. When you understand the basics, you'll know where you can twist. What if you don't brown the beef? And what if instead of dry chili peppers, you use dried paprika peppers, paprika? What if you make one of the great beef stews of the world? Hungarian goulash. Goulash is a uniquely Hungarian dish. It's kind of halfway between a soup and a stew and I actually learned how to make it in Hungary and I learned a couple things. I learned, first of all, every cook has their own version. Every cook feels that their version is the only one that's authentic. So all versions are authentic as long as they include Hungarian flavors. And if there's one thing that seems to tie together all the beef stews of the world beyond the beef, it's onions and garlic. It's time for a few authentic Hungarian flavors here. Peperica, caraway, bell peppers, and it's peppers like these that make paprika. They're grown, they're dried, they're ground, that's paprika. You don't have to brown anything when you're making goulash, not the onions and garlic and not the beef, it definitely saves time. There's more than enough other strong flavors here to make up for the missing brown flavor. Peperica, one of the world's great spices. Think of this as instant pepper. And here's another authentic Hungarian flavor, caraway seed. Caraway seed is what gives rye bread, it's distinctive flavor, but it's also very common in Hungarian cooking. This is a uniquely Hungarian flavor base here and it's quite thick because the paprika is reconstituting right now. It's grabbing moisture from the other ingredients and turning into a pepper paste, a thick pepper paste and does it ever smell delicious. This is actually ready for the next ingredients for the beef and the carrots and the wine. Beef chuck is always a great choice for making a stew, mainly because it's full of flavor. And because it's full of flavor, it's also tough, which means it definitely needs a little bit of stewing time to tenderize. And the last thing to consider here is your choice of liquid. What flavorful liquid should be added to simmer all of these great ingredients together? And when you're in hungry, the answer's very simple because you're always close to some world-class red wine. There are two ways to cook this. You can simmer right on the stove until the meat is tender or pop a lid on it and bake it until the meat is tender. And 325 degrees is your best choice if you're heading for the oven because that's the heat that it takes to maintain a simmer within a pot like this. You can serve goulash with any potato dish or just include potatoes in the goulash, but it turns out that the Hungarians don't just have a version of beef stew. They also have their own version of pasta. Here's what it takes to make one of the world's great noodles, spetzly. And one of the reasons spetzly is so great is because it's so easy to make. Whisk together two cups of whole wheat flour with one teaspoon of baking powder and a quarter teaspoon of salt. There's the dry. On the wet side, two eggs and one cup of milk, then just stir together the wet and the dry into a kind of a gloopy batter. And the top secret weapon that transforms a bowl of gloopy dough into a pile of homemade noodles is, a standard box grater. Check this out. The batter easily falls through these holes and it cooks in seconds. And when the spetzly noodles float to the surface, they're done. It's that easy. Then traditionally, it sauteed them butter to even more flavor. I love the texture of the spetzly, the chewy little goodness in each one of those bites. And sour cream, great way to finish goulash. It's tangy and adds a little richness, but this dish is all about the paprika.