Meat hodgepodge, hearty, fragrant, appetizing with a unique taste.
So, the main secrets of cooking:
– A real meat hodgepodge can be cooked using at least three types of meat, moreover, different in preparation. One is used to make meat broth: raw beef or chicken (the meat is then minced). The second must be smoked, such as smoked bacon or ham (you can take sliced). The third type of meat is most often boiled or fried sausages.
– all sautéing for hodgepodge is performed only in butter.
– it is very important to stew chopped pickled (or pickled) cucumbers in butter. Usually, this is not done in recipes and cucumbers make the taste of hodgepodge worse.
– for large cucumbers, the skin is cut off and the seeds are removed, and small cucumbers are simply crushed and sautéed in butter.
– Only brine from green olives is added to the hodgepodge, not brine from pickled cucumbers (optional).
– you can use a different variety of capers and meat! The more different kinds you use, the better the taste.
Ingredients
- Meat with a bone – 1 – 1.5 pounds
- 1 Medium onion
- 1 Medium carrot
- 8 cups Water
- 3-4 Pickled cucumbers without peel
- 1 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1 tbsp Capers
- 10 -15 Olives
- 2 Smoked or fried sausage
- Ham
- Bacon
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons butter or ghee
Directions:
- Place the meat, one carrot, and one onion in a saucepan, pour 2 quarters of water, bring to a boil over high heat, remove the foam, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook the broth under a closed lid for 1 hour over low heat.
- Cut the onion into half rings, carrots into small strips, peel the pickles and cut into small cubes.
- Heat a frying pan with 2 tbsp. butter or ghee and add the onion and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes.
- After adding pickled cucumbers and tomato paste to the sauteed vegetables, mix well, reduce the heat to a slow one, cover and simmer until the cucumbers are ready, the cucumbers should become soft.
- Remove meat and vegetables from the prepared broth; cut the meat into small pieces. Add the sauteed vegetables with tomato paste to the broth, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for 5 minutes.
- Put sausages, and meat cut into small pieces into a saucepan.
- Salt, and pepper to taste, add olives, and capers and cook for another 3 minutes.
- When serving hodgepodge, add a slice of lemon individually. Meat hodgepodge is served to the table with fresh herbs and sour cream.