Potato Paprikash

This week our theme appears to be "Food that is orangish in color". We didn't plan it that way, but sometimes it just happens. Once we accidentally planned a whole week of food where each dish had olives in it. I don't even like olives!

So with just a little more ado.... here we have another "orangish" dish. But this one is wickedly good. The helping in the front of this picture is the topic of this article; the buckwheat salad in the back was a bit of a flop.



Chicken Paprikash is the Hungarian National dish, and for good reason. Paprikash is one of my favorite tastes: onion cooked with a good dose of sweet Hungarian paprikash, and then smoothed out with a dollop of sour cream. However, in our ever-evolving diet, we have replaced the chicken with potatoes. The result is incredibly simple yet bursting with flavor. It is even bordering on "comfort food".

This recipe assumes you are using a pressure cooker. If you don't have one, a large pot will do, but it will take longer. While cooking with pressure, this dish can be cooked under 5 minutes. With a pot, oh, I don't know, a couple days or so? If you make it in a pot, let me know so I can update the instructions!

Potato Paprikash

Ingredients:

1 T canola oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 c water

1 T sweet paprika

1 13-oz can of diced tomatoes, puréed in a blender

2 lbs red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices

3/4 t salt

ground pepper

4 T sour cream

Steps:

1. Heat oil in the pressure cooker. Cook the onion over medium-high heat for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the water. Stir in the paprika and tomato puree, then bring to a boil. Add the potatoes, salt, and pepper. Stir it all up well.

2. Lock the lid in place and bring to high pressure. Lower heat and maintain high pressure for 3 minutes (or 5 minutes at 7,000 feet). Reduce pressure with the quick release. If the potatoes are not quite tender, simply put the lid back on (don't lock), and let the pot sit on the burner for a few more minutes.

3. Stir in the sour cream before serving.

The sour cream is really what makes this dish what it is; even though it's a piddly 4 tablespoons, don't try to skip it! We use soy-based sour cream which is an excellent dairy free substitute. You might want to use it even if you're not lactose intolerant because it keeps in the refrigerator for months.