4 medium potatoes, halved
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 small onion, minced
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon flour
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Rub potatoes with vegetable oil and place in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 45 minutes.
3. When potatoes are ready, cook mushrooms and onions in milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
4. When onions are tender, melt butter in a separate skillet and whisk in flour. Combine this with the mushroom milk to make a thick sauce.
5. Stir dill into the sauce and serve with potatoes.

Makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon butter
1 pound stew beef, cubed
2 Hungarian sausages, sliced
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 red chili, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons flour
4 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper

1. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Melt the butter and brown the stew beef in batches. Remove and set aside.
2. Fry the sausage, onion, green pepper and chili pepper until the vegetables are tender.
3. Stir in the garlic, paprika, tomato paste and beef broth, then re-add the beef. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until tender, about an hour.
4. When meat is tender, melt remaining butter in a small saucepan and whisk in the flour. Add a few ladles of the simmering liquid to make a thick sauce, then use this to thicken the beef mixture.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add cayenne for a spicier goulash. Serve with sour cream.

Makes 4 servings

I was looking up recipes to use up my sour cream and my interest was piqued by a Lithuanian potato recipe. So I started looking into Lithuanian recipes and discovered that they actually like some pretty gross things, like dishes involving stomachs and pig ears and jellied fat and such. That, pickled stuff and beet juice. I guess it's the typical Eastern European fare that I come across quite often, but it just wasn't doing it for me. However, it did get me thinking of other recipes I'm actually familiar with for Eastern Europe, and I can't believe I haven't made Goulash so far this year!

My momma used to feed me goulash when I was a kid. What I grew to know as goulash was basically ground beef with noodles and sour cream, I think. The goulash I made tonight was nothing like that at all. This used braised stew meat instead of ground beef and I omitted the noodles in favor of rice. This was also somewhat spicy and very flavorful with paprika. The Hungarian sausages I picked up made a nice additional as well, with a little hint of caraway. I was really, really happy with the way this turned out. Enough so that I was happy to have skipped out on visiting the two Hungarian restaurants within 5 minutes of here. It's hard to avoid the temptation to eat at all these wonderful restaurants, but I'm depriving myself as much as possible until the end of December.

I ended up making Lithuanian Potatoes with Mushroom Dill Sauce, which did not use any sour cream at all. Basically it's just roasted potatoes with a mushroom gravy and dill. Actually, that's exactly what it is. Mushroom gravy is far from my most beloved food, but it was complimentary of the goulash and went well with the potatoes, so I don't regret making it by any means. You could possibly even thin it out and pretend it's a soup.