Sunday, August 1, 2010

Easy Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is perhaps one of the easiest and tastiest dishes you can make. The only slightly pricey part of it is the meat, but if you shop smartly you can still feed four people for around a buck-fifty a plate.

I had to do some substitutions from my usual stroggie recipe as I was out of tomato paste and fairly low on cream. But don't worry, I persevered and figured out some quick and easy subs. I'll tell you what they were in a minute.

This is my basic, standard stroggie recipe. Sometimes I "go above and beyond" it, other times I leave it as is. Last night was the "leave as is" as Wifey-Poo wasn't up for anything too spicy.


Easy Beef Stroganoff


What you need:

500 grams (a bit over a pound) of lean ground beef
1 onion
500 grams mushrooms --the more, the better!
1/2 cup tomato paste
3 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp paprika
sea salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups cream
1/4 cup sour cream


Substitutions:
I've used kangaroo, caribou, moose, or venison instead of beef --tasty!

I was out of tomato paste so I took 2 cups tomato puree and cooked it down till it was the consistency of tomato paste ---Ta-DA!

I also didn't have enough cream so I mixed full cream milk powder with an equal amount of water to make a nice, creamy milk slurry. Worked perfect.



What you do:

Brown the ground meat in a large skillet till it's half cooked. If you aren't using really lean meat then drain off some of the juices now. Add the onions and shrooms to the meat, sprinkle a bit of sea salt, and cook till the meat is done. By then the onions and shrooms will be done.

Add the tomato paste, dijon mustard, and the paprika. Give it a thorough stirring for a minute with the heat on low. Add the cream with the heat still on low. Stir it well to combine everything and let it simmer till the cream just starts to bubble. Turn the heat off and stir in the sour cream.

See? Wasn't that easy?

I served mine over pasta last night, specifically #56 fusilli. That means medium spirals. Very tasty, very easy, and it'll impress your friends.

beef stroganoff

2 comments:

Arvay said...

Kangaroo? Is that commonly eaten, like moose? When they get killed on the road, do they get picked up my charities, like moose? Would I roo-in this post if I made a silly pun?

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Arvay: Up until around 10 years ago (about when I arrived, coincidence?) it wasn't eaten much. Most folks considered it to be fit for their dogs, if at all. Fortunately there's been more interest in game meat. Venison, roo, and emu meat can be found in local specialty shops. In fact, you can find roo mince in most grocery stores now.
And no, you didn't roo-in the post, I figured it was just you being your usually emu-sing self.
Don't think the roadkill is butchered up, as they are not very common in the metro area --unlike moose in Alaska.