Russia ~ Dinner ~ Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff

This is a great first recipe to make as it resembles the style of cooking we learned in India, see the great sauce? This one however does not add as many spices, nor do we cook those spices in the oil before we prepare the meal however it was a great dish to ease into this new month. I think almost everyone in America has heard of or tried this dish, I think there are even Pre-packaged and Processed versions of this in boxes on store shelves that instruct you to just add water and hamburger, however I think making this dish is much more satisfying.
This way you can add to, subtract from and tweak the ingredients to cater to your families taste and trust me when I say, the box has nothing on homemade! :)
So here is the Recipe, from Cooks.com a site that I first used to break into world cooking because of the easy meals, ease of searching for I wanted and large variety.

BEEF STROGANOFF

from COOKS.COM

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3 lb. round steak
3 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. minced onion
1 can mushrooms, drained; save liquid
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
A grating of nutmeg
1 c. sour cream

Pound the beef until it is thin, then cut thin, narrow strips. Saute the onion, beef, and mushrooms in the butter in a moderately hot skillet. Add the seasonings and just enough of the liquid off the mushrooms to simmer slowly over a low fire for one hour. Add the sour cream just before serving and reheat but do not allow to boil after sour cream has been added.

What I did Differently

I did not have time to pound meat when I was making this so I used some Carne Asada cut meat because it was already thinly sliced. All I had to do was slice it up.

I did not simmer the mushrooms for an hour, seriously it was like 90 degrees outside I was in a hurry to get all appliances that created heat, turned off, I mean the light bulbs were even too much! :p

You can serve this with anything from rice, to fried potatoes to pasta. I made pasta, thinking that it would be the easiest and quickest to make, however I swear that pot was heating up for at least 30 minutes while I stood there hot and tired and grumpy praying, nay begging for it to hurry the heck up! 

What My family thought

My boys were spending the night at a friends house, so aside from the heat I was a bit grumpy about that I mean didn't they know it was the start of Russia month?? My daughter had a friend over though so it evened it out a bit. I used a bit too much sour cream was the verdict, but otherwise tasty. 

Now I don't know about you, but when it is hot outside and I have just stood at a hot stove cooking for my children, hearing that the food is not perfect does not go over well. I sulked for the rest of the night, well ok for the next two hours because I passed out just before 10 in my overstuffed chair in front of the air conditioner while watching "The Glades" and whining about how much I missed Florida.