One Dish Wonder

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Well, it’s not too secret a secret but it was my strategy for saving face when in the dating scene. Yeah, OK, it was a few years ago. I’ve laughed for years saying that when I met a man I made sure he cooked before I dated him in case it got serious. I grew up eating good but basic dishes. The word cuisine wouldn’t have applied unless someone has lumped pot roasts, tuna casseroles, pork chops and gravy, hamburgers and beef stews together giving them their own category in the fancy food world. Though thriving on these good though basic dishes, for some reason I didn’t learn to cook. My mom cooked and once came in second on a statewide bread-baking contest. My Dad enjoyed cooking. As a widower he made killer huckleberry pies and was very popular with the ladies at senior center potlucks. My Grandmother, who lived in walking distance, loved to cook and I still savor the memories of brown beans and ham bone served with her amazing potato salad made creamy with an addition of thick cream. My cousin Donna, a sister to me, loved to cook. Each Easter she would make me bunny rolls, home-made rolls in the shape of bunnies. Donna was the first to introduce me to scalloped potatoes with cheese which, to me, was an amazingly sophisticated dish. The only cheese my mother ever allowed to touch a vegetable was the melting of cheese over a head of cauliflower.

Ok, back to my strategy of saving face for my lack of cooking skills. Meat was particularly challenging. I never bought expensive pieces of meat because I had no instincts whatsoever about cooking meat correctly. I suppose I should have taken a cooking class. (I did take a whole foods cooking class once, but that’s another story surrounding a temporary side step attempt to become vegetarian. Forgive me, it was the 1970’s). As a young single gal dating, there were times when my cooking skills or lack of would come up. What to do, what to do? I remember perusing the red and white Better Homes And Gardens Cookbook. I guess I was hoping for an epiphany. Page turning along in the meat section, I came across a recipe for Beef Stroganoff. Hm, I thought, it didn’t look too complicated. The ingredients stretched me a bit. I’d never used fresh mushrooms, consommé, or sour cream in a dish before. Guys generally liked meat dishes and it looked sort of like a “meat and gravy” dish with a kick, I thought. So, I set out to buy my first piece of sirloin steak and when the dish turned out amazingly good, I hit on something. I could become expert at this dish, and I did. It would turn out perfect every time. And, I never met a guy who wasn’t impressed and who didn’t think me a fabulous cook. Alas, the only trouble was I could only have them over for dinner once. So, I ended up with a guy who cooks, he seduced me with stuffed pork chops on the barbeque grill. I still make my Beef Stroganoff and it still comes out perfectly. It is, though, the only time my husband will let me get near the stove with steak of any kind.

Beef Stroganoff
adapted over many years from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients
2 lbs. beef sirloin sliced in ¼” strips
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 Tablespoons oil
1 large onion, chopped
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

4 Tablespoons butter
5 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 cans Campbell's Beef Consommé

Sour Cream to taste

Instructions
Slice beef and dredge in flour salt and garlic powder.
Brown quickly in oil.
Remove meat and brown onion and mushrooms for a few minutes.

Remove onions and mushrooms. Melt butter and flour mixing well into a roué. Stir in the tomato paste. Add consommé and cook till bubbly gravy consistency. Return meat, onions and mushrooms to pan, stirring into the sauce.

Stir in sour cream when ready to serve. Serve over wide noodles.

Modifications over the years:
I push the mushrooms and onions to the side of the pan and make the roué in the center.
I use Johnnies Seasoning instead of salt.
When sirloin is selling cheap I make a double batch cooling it and freezing it in Ziplocs before adding sour cream. It freezes well.
I cook and freeze wide noodles making for a quick fix dinner.

.