Adventures in Cooking: Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff is such a weird name for a delicious dish. Or, am I the only one who thinks "stroganoff" is a strange word?  Oh, well.  As with my last recipe posting, I'd never made this before.  I don't think I'd ever had Beef Stroganoff before.  My husband wanted this for dinner, so I obliged (such a nice wife I am).  It was really easy and soooo good.  Allow me to share:

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef chuck cubes
2 cups red wine
1 yellow onion
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 can beef broth
1 tablespoon mustard
1 package portabella mushrooms
1/3 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper
1 package wide egg noodles (or noodle of choice).

OK.  So, first get out a big zip lock bag, and dump your beef cubes and red wine in there.  I use the pre cut chunks of beef that they sell in the meat department at the grocery store.  I'm lazy and I like things to be simple.  I also used Cabernet Sauvignon for the wine, but I think any red wine will do.  Close the bag and stick in the fridge for a few hours.

Leftover from our wedding, haha.

Now that the beef is nice and marinated, we'll begin the whole process.  Season the beef with salt and pepper to taste.  Get your pan nice and hot over medium heat and add your butter.  Once it's melted and warm, add the beef.  Your goal is just to brown the beef on both sides for about 5 minutes total.  While that's cooking, chop up your onion.  Yeah, you're using the whole thing.  No, it won't be overpowering, I promise! 

Push your beef over to one side of the pan, and add the onion.  You'll want to cook the onion for about 3-5 minutes, until it turns a little translucent.

Tip: position the pan so that the beef isn't over the flame/directly on the heating element.  That way, it won't burn and the onions get to cook better.

Once your onion is cooked down a little, push the onion over to the side with the beef.  Tilt the pan so any hidden juice beneath the meat comes over to the empty side.  Now, slowly incorporate the flour into the juices with a wisk.  It's ok if some little onions get mixed in, just get a nice paste going.  Now, dump in your beef broth.  Continue stirring until somewhat smooth, and then mix everything back together in the center of the pan.

Bring this whole pan of goodness up to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce the heat and mix in your mustard.  Also, wipe off those mushrooms and dump them in the pan too.

Make sure your heat setting is on "low" or "simmer," put a lid on it, and go do something while this simmers for an hour.  You can stir it every once in awhile (or every 10 minutes like me because I have issues). 

When you have about 15-20 minutes left, start making your noodles.  I just buy the generic egg noodles my grocery store carries. Once these guys are done, it's time to finish up the dish.

Stir in your sour cream.  Taste it.  Add additional salt and pepper as needed.  I like a LOT of pepper.

Heat the pan back up to temperature for a few minutes, then mix in your noodles.  TA-DA.  Delish!

Don't forget to thank your sous-chef for making this all possible.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Cooking: Pasta Sauce

I love to cook. Love, love, love.  Over the years, the Food Network has pretty much taught me everything I know about cooking.  No lie.  I love that channel.   My mom doesn't really enjoy cooking, and my dad is a very picky eater, so we usually had the same things for dinner when I was younger.  I started to follow that trend with K, basically making the same stuff every week.  Now that I'm done with school and our wedding is over, I have time to try out some new recipes.  My cooking bug is back!

My boss makes her own homemade pasta sauce that she learned to make from her mother.  It's delicious.  She shared this recipe with my coworkers and I, so I figured I'd share it with you guys.  That way, you too can enjoy something other than Ragu.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Ingredients: 

• 2 large cans crushed tomatoes
• 2 large cans of water (use the tomato cans)
• 1 12 oz can of tomato paste
• 1 cup olive oil or canola oil (depending on preference)
• 3 onions, diced (yellow or vidalia)
• 5-10 cloves of garlic (I say, bring on the garlic!)
• 5-6 leaves fresh basil
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper 

So, first thing you want to do is dice up the onions.  I know it seems like a TON of onion, but trust me, it cooks down a lot and gives the sauce a really good flavor.  I do a fine chop, because I don't like really chunky sauce.  I slice up the onion and let the food processor do the rest.  When you're done, you'll have this:

Pour the oil into a large stockpot, and add the onions once the oil gets hot.  You want this to be over a medium heat.  Cook the onions until they're translucent.  While your onions are cooking down, finely dice up the garlic.  Add to the pot once your onions are somewhat clear.  Cook the onions and garlic together for a few minutes.  Next, add the tomato paste.

You want to keep stirring the tomato paste with the oil, garlic and onions, until the paste is nicely incorporated and is more liquid than paste.  Add your two cans of crushed tomatoes.  Fill the cans up with water, and add the two cans of water to the pot as well.

Now, it's time for seasoning.  Continue to cook the sauce over a medium heat.  Wash off your basil leaves, and drop them in, whole.  Don't worry, you'll fish them out once the sauce is done.

Add pepper, salt, garlic powder and Italian seasoning to taste.  You'll need a pretty fair amount of each, since there is a lot of sauce to flavor!  Bring the sauce to a boil.  Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 2 hours (if not more).  Remove the basil leaves, and voila!  Sauce!  Not from a can!  Isn't it amazing?

This sauce can be frozen and reheated for in the future.  The recipe makes a lot, so have a few Ziploc containers handy.  To add a little more to this sauce, I plan to cook up some ground meat, portobella mushrooms and green peppers and add them to the portion of sauce I use for tonight's dinner.  Why not add it to the whole pot?  Well, I'm told this will freeze better without the meat and other goodies.  Anyway, it'll be much more delish to cook up fresh meat and veggies and add them to the defrosted sauce. 

I usually cook up some ziti, add my veggies to the sauce, and load everything into a 13x9 baking dish.  Top with cheese, bake for 15-20 mins at 350 degrees, and mmmmm.  Enjoy.