Week 13: Russian - Beef Stroganoff

Today I learned that the original beef stroganoff did not include onions, or mushrooms. I cannot imagine a dish without onions. I therefore did not make an original stroganoff.  I made one full of onions and mushrooms. I also did this one by ear. I read several recipes, but there wasn't one of them that had all of the things that I wanted. So here we go.

Get yourself the following:

1.5 lbs of beef steak (boneless chuck was on sale so that's what I went with)
1 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch

I learned the corn starch thing from Chinese week. It makes really good stir fry and since this is basically a stir fry for the first part, it fit. Turned out pretty well.

Now mix that all together and let it stew for 20 minutes.

 While that is marinating, do some mise en place:

1 medium red onion, sliced
10 oz white mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced

Warm up a super big skillet over medium high heat, 'cause this is gonna take some room. Add in some olive oil, about 1 tbsp. Once it is shimmering, add in the mushrooms. Saute them for a bit, 2-4 minutes, and then add in the garlic and some salt. Continue to saute for another 2 minutes.

(I sprinkled 1 tbsp flour over the mushrooms and cooked them for an additional 1-2 minutes. I don't think that you need to do this, because the corn starch in the meat should thicken things up. I did have to add extra broth)

Remove the mushrooms from the pan, wipe it out, add another 1 tbsp of oil. Once it is shimmering, add in the onion. Saute for 4-6 minutes on medium high heat.

Add in your meat and stir fry it.

After you meat has browned, add in about 1/2 cup of beef broth and a bouillon cube. Turn your heat down to medium low and let your meat cook for 8 minutes. If your met starts to get thick, add in some more broth. After about 8 minutes, add in your mushrooms and 1 cup of sour cream, and stir.

I always serve these over egg noodles. I don't know how traditional that is, but that is the way that I do it. This was goooood. But then I don't know where you can go wrong with a sour cream sauce. Top it off with a bit of parsley.

Enjoy!

ps. Tonight's dinner was Cuban roasted pork with black beans and rice. I never would have expected Sandwich week to be one that I needed to plan out two meals for.