There aren't many dishes that make me nervous to try....however, when I was making up the menu for this pay period my husband requested....dah.dah...daaahhhh.....BEEF STROGANOFF!!!!
Immediately I felt kinda clammy...while I LOVE to eat the dish, the thought of making it is intimidating! You see, back when I was a teenager I decided to make my mom a special birthday dinner. I knew she loved mushrooms, and decided to try my hand at beef stroganoff. I didn't realize the problem until I went to serve it and it was literally SWIMMING in grease. You see, the directions said to drain off excess grease. In my young mind, excess means extra..which I interpreted as, "not all of the grease". It was pretty gross...that event scarred me.
But my husband rarely requests certain dinners, so I decided to try my hand at it, again. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law and read it thru multiple times to make sure I was prepared.
I started out strong, the steak was seared to perfection, and I actually used baby portabello mushrooms, the kitchen was smelling incredible! The problem came when I began to make the sauce. I added the tomato paste and beef stock. It thickened up nicely, but it looked really red, so I added the sour cream and sherry....still looking WAY too red!
My husband found the problem. I had added an entire can of tomato paste instead of the 1 tablespoon that I should have added! However, this catastrophe was a little easier to fix, we just added alot more beef stock, sour cream and sherry. It tripled the recipe. So if anyone wants some beef stroganoff....come on by!
Beef Stroganoff
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb steak
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon tomato paste (not a can)
1 1/4 cup beef stock
1 cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons dry sherry
Combine one tablespoon of flour with salt and dredge the meat in the mixture.
Heat the skillet, then add half the butter. When melted, add the meat strips and brown quickly, flipping the meat to brown on all sides. Add the mushroom slices, onion and garlic. Cook three to four minutes until the onion is barely tender.
Remove the meat and mushrooms from the skillet and keep warm. Add the remaining butter to the pan drippings. When melted blend in the remaining flour with a whisk. Add the tomato paste. Slowly pour in the meat stock. Cook, stirring constantly with the whisk, until the mixture thickens.
Return the meat and the mushrooms to the skillet. Stir in the sour cream and sherry and heat briefly. Serve over egg noddles.
