Goulash

Finely chop the onions. Melt the lard in a heavy casserole over medium-low heat and cook the onions with a pinch of salt for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then. They should collapse to a soft golden mass with no crunch left; this is the body of the dish and rushing it leaves the broth thin.

While the onions cook, cut the beef shin into 3 cm cubes, crush the caraway seeds in a mortar and finely chop the garlic. Then take the pan off the heat entirely and let it stop sizzling for 30 seconds. Stir in the sweet paprika, the hot paprika if using, the caraway and the garlic, and keep stirring until the fat has turned deep red.

Return the pan to low heat, add the beef and turn it in the red fat until every cube is coated. The meat is not browned first here; it colours in the fat as it comes up to temperature.

Chop the tomato, deseed and slice the green pepper, and add them with the bay leaves. Pour in 300 ml of the stock and bring to a bare simmer. Cover and cook very gently for 1 hour and 30 minutes, checking every half hour and adding a splash of stock if it looks like catching.

Peel the carrots and slice them into rounds. Add them with the rest of the stock and simmer, uncovered now, for another 20 minutes.

Peel the potatoes, cut them into 3 cm chunks, add them and cook for a final 25 to 30 minutes, until they are tender and their starch has clouded the broth slightly. The beef should pull apart under a spoon with no resistance.

Fish out the bay leaves and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Let it stand off the heat for 10 minutes before serving, so the fat rises and the broth settles.