Recipes:

Finally, the beef stroganoff recipe

OK, I had to cook this again here in France to make sure I didn't forget something, and I'm not an expert at writing recipes so no complaints, please!!! Keep in mind that I "cook by smell", so I've estimated the amounts for some of the additives here, especially since I'm here in metric-land and I don't have tablespoon and teaspoon measuring spoons. As is usual in cooking increase or decrease the amounts of spices to taste. I like both red and black pepper along with worcestershire sauce, so there may be too much of both in there for you.

UPDATE: I've adjusted some quantities here, so use the recipe as posted now, not the one posted on Wednesday morning!

One more warning: this recipe is NOT heart-healthy... it has a lot of butter and sour cream in it!!!

Ingredients:

1 small to medium sized onion (white or yellow)

2 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of mushroom base or ~1/4 cup of substitute (see below for more info on this)

1 and 1/2 or 2 pounds of beef cut into bite-sized chunks (good cuts taste better, but even "stew beef" turns out pretty tasty)

two small cans of sliced mushrooms, drain the cans before adding

1 cup of red wine (use whatever you're drinking while you're cooking this, that's what I do)

2 teaspoons of flour (do not use self rising flour, use the pure, undiluted stuff)

red (cayenne) pepper, finely ground

black pepper, finely ground

worcestershire sauce

1 and 1/2 cups of sour cream (do NOT use non-fat sour cream, use the regular stuff)

extra wide egg noodles (enough for 8 servings)

Instructions:

open the wine and pour yourself a glass (well, that's how I always start...)

dice the onion finely

melt the butter in a medium to large deep skillet (preferably one that you have a lid for) over a low to medium heat, not enough to scorch the butter!

once the butter is fully melted, add the mushroom base and the onions, saute the onions for a few minutes at the same heat

once the onions have softened and soaked up some of the color of the mushroom base, add the beef and turn the heat up just a bit

while the beef is cooking, sprinkle a quarter teaspoon of red pepper, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and half a teaspoon of worcestershire sauce over the beef

start heating the water for the egg noodles

when the beef is about 1/2 done and you are turning it, sprinkle half a teaspoon of the black pepper, and a quarter teaspoon of worcestershire sauce again, add a quarter teaspoon of the red pepper if you really like red pepper

when the beef looks like it's fully cooked, lower the heat a bit to about the same level as when you were melting the butter, add the mushrooms, and put the lid on the skillet

while the skillet is simmering, mix the two teaspoons of flour with the one cup of red wine thoroughly so there are no clumps

roughly 5 minutes after adding the mushroos, hopefully by this point the water for the noodles is boiling, so add the egg noodles, they should cook for about 8 to 9 minutes for al dente

right after adding the noodles to the boiling water, add the wine/flour mix to the skillet, and leave the lid off for it to simmer for about 5 minutes over low to medium heat, if after 5 minutes the liquid seems thin, add another teaspoon of flour, try to add it slowly so it doesn't clump but instead thickens the liquid

when checking the consistency of the sauce at 5 minutes, this is the main time I check on how it smells... sometimes I add more worcestershire sauce, sometimes more black pepper, occasionally more red pepper, whatever the smell seems to be "lacking"

when the noodles are ready (8 to 9 minutes until al dente, usually), drain them (tip: add a small bit of vegetable oil to them and mix well while they are in the colander so they don't stick together!!!) and put them in a bowl

reduce the heat on the skillet to low and add the sour cream, thoroughly mix the sour cream (sometimes I add 2 cups instead of one, depending on how much sauce I have) and leave the skillet on low heat while you put the noodles on plates

turn of the heat to the skillet, put the beef and sauce over the noodles, and eat accompanied using the red wine you used in the recipe!

MUSHROOM BASE:

There is a wonderful product I've found called "mushroom base" that is sold in small jars with a black label. I have no idea who makes it, or how widely it's distributed; it's sold along with similar chicken and beef bases generally in the soup aisle next to the beef and chicken bullion. It's a thick sauce with the consistency of jam or marmalade. I took the beef stroganoff recipe off the label of this product and modified it to what you see above. I've found a way to substitute for this ingredient if you can't find it. The recipe for making the substitute:

Ingredients:

1/2 a cup of water

fresh mushrooms (your favorite kind) thoroughly washed and sliced (chopped in a food processor is better)

beef bullion (the cube or powdered kind, enough for one cup)

Instructions:

start with the water and add the chopped or sliced mushrooms until there is just enough water to cover them all (sorry for the imprecise quantities... I'm having enough problems over here in France to deal with the metric-English conversions, too!!!)

add the beef bullion and boil until there is only half of the liquid left

strain the mushrooms out and use the 1/4 cup of liquid in the recipe above to substitute for the mushroom base (NOTE: very, very salty... not for those on low salt diets!!)