I have a theory, when they made the Captain America: Civil War movie, they went we need a recipe from an Eastern European country, and they looked and around and said, “Paprikash” that sounds just exotic enough, but also like something that would be comfort food. And after our Hungary Unit, I can totally see why it was the comfort food they chose.

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Hungary Unit Resources

I did my quick Google search for Hungary facts, and found this particular website: 25 amazing facts about Hungary.

This led me to find a couple more books than were originally on my Hungary booklist

Welcome to Hungary– this is the particular book I found, but there are a whole slew of books in this vein that are a great general overview of the country
The Little Golden Lamb– a Hungarian retelling of the Goose Girl story with a lamb instead of a goose
The boy who loved math: the improbable life of Paul Erdos– I always love when I find more unique biographies, and this biography of the mathematician is one of those
Not-so-grizzly bear stories– This is a collection of bear stories from around the world, and one is from Hungary
Little Rooster’s Diamond Button– After the king steals Rooster’s diamond pin, he tricks the king into giving it back

And then we headed over to YouTube to watch the Geography Now episode:

And the always popular, or at least to me because the reason behind flags greatly amuses me:

Hungary Recipe: Beef Paprikash

Like I said, when I looked up dishes, I was greatly amused to find the recipe from Captain America: Civil War and HAD to make it. So I found this recipe: Beef paprikash recipe on Taste of Home and started making it.

Hungarian Paprikash Europe main dish slow cooker 10th

Paprikash Ingredients

1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons paprika (if you can find Hungarian paprika)
1 1/4 teaspoons alt
2 pounds stew meat
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion chopped
1 small sweet red pepper, finely chopped (I used bell pepper)
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 14 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 can beef broth

Let’s make that paprikash

In gallon size ziploc bag mix flour, 1 tablespoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add the beef, seal the bag, and shake to coat the beef.
Brown stew meat in a pan. While it is browning, chop the onion and pepper and put in slow cooker.
Add the stew meat to slow cooker, then add fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Stir to mix.
Cook on low for 8-12 hours.

Hungarian Beef Paprikash

This Hungarian beef paprikash is a delicious stew to serve on a cold winter day over egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

1/3 cup flour
2 tablespoons paprika (if you can find Hungarian paprika)
1 1/4 teaspoons alt
2 pounds stew meat
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion chopped
1 small sweet red pepper, finely chopped (I used bell pepper)
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 14 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 can beef broth

Instructions

In gallon size ziploc bag mix flour, 1 tablespoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add the beef, seal the bag, and shake to coat the beef.
Brown stew meat in a pan. While it is browning, chop the onion and pepper and put in slow cooker.
Add the stew meat to slow cooker, then add fire-roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Stir to mix.
Cook on low for 8-12 hours.

Notes

This can also be cooked in a dutch oven. If you are doing that, after browning the meat, remove the meat and then cook the onions and pepper. Then add back in the beef and the remaining ingredients and cook for 2-3 hours on low.

It was a delicious meal. Even The Artist who isn’t a big fan of paprika enjoyed it, so it’s been added into our regularly made meals.

Hungarian Paprikash Europe main dish slow cooker

Hungary Notebooking pages

We used the Europe notebooking pages, and this was back when I occasionally made mini-books, so if you join my newsletter, you can get the mini-books I made.

I was amused to learn there were many castle in Hungary. For whatever reason, I never particularly thought of Hungary and castles. I’m not really sure why, anyone have any idea why that might be?

I was also shocked to learn most of Hungary is below sea level.

Our Hungary mini-books

Golden Lamb- summing up the story in a few sentences
The Not So Smart Bears- again summing up the story
Little Rooster- summing up the story, and you can see why I stopped doing this because it’s repetitive after a while
Paul Erdos- he truly was a fascinating man to learn about

And that’s our Hungary Unit.