Griechisches Kartoffelgulasch (Greek potato stew)

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a 4 litre pot over medium heat and sweat the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt for 6 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the tomato paste and cook it for 1 minute, stirring, until it darkens slightly and smells sweet rather than raw.
3. Potatoes, canned tomatoes, water, bay leaf and oregano in. Bring to a simmer, then turn down until it barely bubbles.
4. Simmer 30 minutes, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender enough to break slightly at the edges under a spoon and the sauce has reduced to a thick coating. Stir gently now and again so the bottom does not catch; do not stir hard, or the potatoes turn to mash.
5. Fish out the bay leaf, stir in the vinegar, then season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve with crumbled feta and parsley scattered over, and bread for the sauce.

Method in the Thermomix

Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl.

1. Garlic into the dry bowl. Chop 3 sec / speed 6. Add the onion, roughly chopped, and chop 3 sec / speed 5.
2. Add the olive oil. Sauté 6 min / 120 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until soft.
3. Add the tomato paste. Sauté 1 min / 120 °C / speed 1, measuring cup off, until it darkens.
4. Add the potatoes in 4 cm chunks, canned tomatoes, water, bay leaf and oregano. Cook 30 min / 100 °C / reverse / speed 1, measuring cup on. Reverse keeps the potato chunks whole instead of shredding them against the blade.
5. Remove the bay leaf, stir in the vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix 10 sec / reverse / speed 1. Taste through the lid and correct.
6. Serve with crumbled feta and parsley scattered over, and bread for the sauce.

Notes

• Do not be shy with the olive oil. This is a lathera dish, meaning “oily” in Greek, and the oil is not a cooking medium here so much as an ingredient in its own right. Cutting it back gives a thinner, less satisfying sauce.
• Cook it uncovered. The whole point of the long simmer is to reduce the liquid into the potatoes; a lid traps the steam that needs to leave.
• Stir gently, not often. The potatoes are meant to hold their shape at the centre while softening at the edges, and rough or frequent stirring breaks that down into something closer to mashed potato in tomato sauce.
• It is very good the next day, served at room temperature rather than reheated, which is how it is often eaten in Greece in warmer months.

Ingredient substitutions

• Waxy potatoes hold their shape better than floury ones over the long simmer; if only floury potatoes are available, cut the simmer to 20 minutes and expect a thicker, starchier sauce.
• Feta can be left off entirely for a vegan dish, or swapped for kefalotyri if available, which is sharper and holds its shape better when warm.
• Fresh oregano can replace dried, doubled in quantity and added in the last 5 minutes rather than at the start, where it would lose its aroma over the long simmer.
• A green bell pepper, added with the onion, is a common regional addition and works well if there is one to use up.

From Christoph Mayer

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