And it happened! Stroganoff Recipe cooked!

 First of all,  I apologize for the very oddly and annoying spacing on the photos and text if anyone is viewing this on other than a standard computer. I noticed recently that I can view the blog posts in editing preview mode in different formats, accommodating all platform configuration is beyond my technical knowledge. 'Dangit Jim, I'm a cook not a code writer!'

Now then, if you have the room to have two pans on the stove at the same time. And you have the recipe in a cohesive format, which I didn't, couldn't find my copy of the recipe so had to take screen shot of my rewrite here in order to have it handy. 

 

As disgusting as that may look to some, I can guarantee you it is delicious! A few notes about my process on this as the recipe is already posted. Fixing this amount, there is enough for two more servings of the sauce. So 'Recipe serves 4 helpings'.

I  used a full 8 oz container of sliced 'baby bella' mushrooms so had to cook those before I even cooked the meat because I didn't trust the cooking process to do it and it would add liquid to the final product. Rinse and dry the mushrooms, used a teaspoon of olive oil in the pan and cooked them until most of the liquid had cooked off then moved them to a plate until they were needed. 

The meat I used was 'Bottom Round Boneless' steaks. So they were already sliced thin, all I had to do was slice them into strips. I also omitted using wine in it because I didn't have any and prefer not to have something hanging around like that I won't use. I'll have to find a reasonable substitute sometime.

 

I did remember to cut the meat across the grain to make them more tender but it was still chewy. This was due to the heat of the pan not working well. I would have to have that burner cranked up to 8 or 9 to really sear the meat well. So the flour coating helped to keep them moist but still chewy.

 

 

Onion and garlic were then added, I only used half a yellow onion but it's still fine. I also added two cloves of garlic and I approximated the butter. Another thing, I only had butter/canola oil soft butter which means it melted a lot sooner than regular butter would have. Next time I'll use actual butter. Oh and you'll also see there's a good bit of the 'schmutz' on the bottom of the pan, officially called 'fond' which is the flower and meat juice being cooked. That will get mixed in when the beef broth is added.

 

Meat, mushrooms and onions almost cooked down and then added in the broth and tomato past. If you have a deep frying pan like this, I advise using it. The sides on this was almost too shallow and had to stir carefully so I didn't slop over the sides. Make sure the tomato paste is mixed in thoroughly, as the fond is incorporated it will start thickening the sauce. A note about adding the sour cream, lower the temp of the sauce a bit so it doesn't end up separating. I noticed  It smelled wonderful! Just as I remembered. At this point, if I had a bigger stovetop I would have started the noodles but....

 

This is what I had to do. Move the mostly finished sauce to the back middle back of the stove to make room for the larger saucepan for the noodles. The egg noodles I got were an off brand and were more corkscrew than wavy but they worked. I used two cups of noodles and it was perfect for the two of us.

 

 

 

I had to crank up the burner to almost 9 because at 8 it was just barely bubbling. Maybe I'm impatient but this is an incredibly inferior and ancient stove and oven. The noodles took about 10 or 11 minutes instead of the '8-9 minutes' that the package recommended. 

I also added an extra garlic clove in the sauce and used two on the noodles with a Parmesan/Romano blend of cheese. Dried parsley as well, because that's what I do, make do with what you have. My SO,  is not a fan of sour cream nor parmesan cheese but I doused enough garlic in this to overpower any aversion. We have plenty of sauce left over and he says he'll be cooking some rice tomorrow to put it on. I would rather have noodles because that's how I've always had it.

It was worth all the kitchen juggling and having to go to the store for the missing ingredients (which were critical).  I have so many meals that I remember cooking when I was married and before when my parents cooked that I have missed the flavors that made my taste buds go all nostalgic.