Home Cooking

Discuss Recipes, Cooking Techniques and Cookbooks

1. You can use sirloin steak or tenderloin depending on your budget. This would serve 4 hearty eaters: 2 lb. meat sliced fairly thin on the bias (easy to do if partially frozen).Season meat with salt, pepper & garlic to taste. In large skillet, brown meat in 2-3T olive oil to almost desired doneness (3-4 min for med rare). Empty meat onto plate. Slice 1 med onion thinly and 1 lb. mushrooms (we love 'shrooms, you can use less). Add 2-3T olive oil, add onions 1st, then mushrooms, saute till almost done, empty on plate. Deglaze pan with 1/4 cup sherry, cognac, brandy, red wine, some kind of liquor. Ignite or let alcohol burn off, add 1/4 cup beef broth and simmer a couple of minutes. Add meat & veggies back to pan on low heat to warm. Add 1 cup sour cream, DO NOT BOIL, stir well, just enough to meld and warm up. To avoid curdling, sour cream should be room temperature. Sometimes we add 2 T worchestershire sauce. Serve over rice or noodles.

   Permalink | Reply

   Diane in Bexley May 22, 2006 05:05PM

   1. re: Diane in Bexley

      I like to throw in a little (1/2 tsp or so) dry mustard, and vastly prefer clarified butter, or even neutral oil, to olive oil for this dish - to me the olive oil flavor just wouldn't work here.

      Permalink | Reply

      MikeG May 22, 2006 06:53PM

2. I've been making Beef Stroganoff for a VERY long time. My recipe originally came from an old BHG cookbook -- you know, the one that was designed like a 3-ring binder with the red and white checkerboard cover. The cookbook has long since vanished somehow and since then I've been making this dish on the fly. I've tried other recipes at times but for me none matched the taste of the old one from BHG.
   
   On another cooking forum (Melinda Lee) there was a thread on Beef Stroganoff and someone graciously posted a paraphrase of the old BHG recipe. I copied and saved it from there. So, with thanks to the poster (named Maynard) here is that recipe re-posted:
   (BTW, I have always used Top Sirloin and red wine for Beef Stroganoff)
   
   Beef Stroganoff
   
   1 lb beef tenderloin, sirloin, or round steak
   1 tbls flour
   2 tbls butter
   1 1/2 cp sliced mushrooms
   1/2 cp chopped onion
   1 clove garlic (minced)
   2 tbls butter
   3 tbls flour
   1 tbls tomato paste
   1 tsp beef boulion granules
   1 cp sour creme
   2 tbls dry white wine. (you must be kidding) a good glug of dry vermouth
   Hot cooked noodles. Use the wide Dutch Noodles, forget that Commie "No Yolk" crud. (Unless you have a Med problem)
   
   Partially freeze meat, thinly slice across the grain into bite size pieces
   Put 1 tbls flour, 1/2 tsp salt in a plastic grocery bag. Toss in the meat, and shake to coat.
   In a large skillet, heat 2 tbls of butter. Add meat and brown quickly on both sides. Add mushrooms, onion, and cook 3-4 minutes until onion is crisp tender. (add garlic somewhere in there, so it does not burn)
   Remove meat/mushroom mixture from the pan.
   Add 2 tbls butter to pan drippings, stir in 2 tbls flour (to make a roux)
   Add tomato paste, boullion granules and 1/4 tsp salt.
   Stir in 1 1/4 cp of water.
   Cook and stir over med heat until bubbly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes longer.
   Combine sour creme with remaining 1 tbls flour.
   Return meat/mushroom mixture to skillet.
   Stir in sour cream mixture, and wine.
   Heat through, but do not boil.
   
   Source: http://www.melindalee.com/bb/viewtopi...

   Permalink | Reply

   Sam D. May 22, 2006 06:50PM

3. My favorite, favorite dish of all times.
   
   A couple of young ladies (ahem) working in a bar called Shanghai Lil's, in Shanghai, back in 1947 took me (a green and tender sergeant) to a restaurant on Bubbling Well Road in the old French Quarter (and I wish I could remember its name) where I first had it. I've been making it ever since, and simplifying the recipe down to its essentials.
   
   (Of course, I like mushrooms, paprika and garlic....)
   
   1 pound of beef (round, sirloin or filet, depending on your budget), sliced cross-grain into pieces about 1/4 x 1 x 2inches
   1 pound mushrooms, sliced
   4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
   3-4 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika,
   1 pint sour cream
   3-4 tablespoons butter
   a swirl of oil
   salt and pepper
   
   Saute mushrooms in oil and butter mixture, medium hot flame; remove from pan.
   Saute beef in pan until browned.
   Add paprika; cook 2-3 minutes.
   Add mushrooms back to pan, cook a couple of minutes
   Add sour cream, cook over low heat a couple of minutes.
   Add salt and pepper, to taste.
   
   Simmer over low flame until the meat is tender. The tougher the meat, the longer the cooking time.
   
   I know all the recipes say you shouldn't let the sauce boil after putting in the sour cream, in order to prevent curdling. I dunno; I've simmered it for up to half an hour ('cause I used to use utility-grade meat in my college days) and it always came out just fine.
   
   I always figured, a pound of meat, a pound of mushrooms, a pound of sour cream; lots of paprka and garlic, to taste.
   
   I always serve it with coarse bulgur (cracked wheat)...
   
   1 small onion, minced, sauteed in butter till soft
   1 cup of bulgur, sauteed briefly with the onions
   1 1/2 cups chicken broth, brought to a boil, added to bulgur, cooked for 2-3 minutes, then covered and left alone for 10 minutes or so until the broth is absorbed.If it isn't all absorbed, light the flame for a couple of minutes until it's done.
   
   Yum

   Permalink | Reply

   HowardL May 22, 2006 09:52PM

4. Whatever you do, be sure to add a splash of dry sherry to your recipe. Nothing kicks a stroganoff recipe up like sherry, in my never-to-be-too-humble opinion. I've been making stroganoff since my high school home ec days and it's always a great go-to recipe when company is coming.

   Permalink | Reply

   pilotgirl210 May 24, 2006 02:07PM