Ever since I was a child, my mother has been cooking my Grandma Irene's Beef Stroganoff. She's a yooper (pronounced you-per), being from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and her meals were always warm and filling. Something that will stick to your bones kind of philosophy. I've personally been cooking this for over 20 years and it has never failed me. I am happy to be able to share this with everyone this week.
Ingredients:
2-3 pounds of chuck roast - cubed in 2 inch cubes
2 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
2 onion, medium diced
2 Tablespoons garlic, minced
1 lb mushroom - quarted
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Teaspoon of thyme
3 cups beef broth
3 tablespoons of flour
1 Bag of egg noodles
2 cup sour cream
Salt
Pepper
Garnish:
Chives or Parsley
Equipment Needed:
1 oven safe pot with lid, 1 8 qt pot for noodles, 1 large mixing bowl
Cooking Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400
In the large mixing bowl, toss the meat in salt, pepper, and flour.
Heat large pot oven medium high heat. Add oil and bring to temperature. Sear the meat until brown, a few minutes on each side. Once the meat is seared, add onions and mushroom and sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring often. You want some of the moisture to sweat out and absorb some of the flour that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the thyme, tomato paste, and broth, stir and bring to a simmer. Top with lid and place in the oven for about 40 minutes. We are looking for fork tender so the cooking time can be adjusted to suit your needs. Once the beef is in the oven, now would be the time to clean the bowl that you used to toss the meat. We are going to use this again later.
Normally, when I place my beef in the oven, I start bringing my water to a boil for the noodles. Remember to add a healthy pinch of salt to the water. This will help season the noodles. Cook noodles as recommended by the package. You can toss them in a little of vegetable oil once they have been strained, to be able to set them aside for later or even for left overs.
Once the beef in done cooking and is fork tender carefully remove from oven. Now let's talk about tempering in a culinary aspect. It is a task of slowly bringing the temperature of something hot (beef broth) and something cold (sour cream) together to make a creamy, smooth texture. It's the same principle used when making a custard and ice cream.
In the bowl we have cleaned, place the sour cream in the bowl and add a healthy pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Slowly ladle hot broth from the pot in to the sour cream and gently stir for a minute. It'll loosen the sour cream but wont curdle it. Continue to add a little at a time until the sour cream becomes smooth and pourable, now add this back to the big pot and slowly stir. At this point, you should a rich thick broth. You can either toss you noodles in now and serve or place your noodle in a bowl and spoon the sauce over the top. Garnish with chives or parsley and you have a dish.
I hope you enjoy...
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