Beef Stroganoff Revisited

Since I posted the crock pot version of this recipe in March 2011, I’ve made it a couple times and got a little feedback. It’s been coming out too thin.

So, I made a few changes and when I made it last night, my wife said that it is the best I’ve done.

I suggest you go back to the March post and then read on, but if not, the recipe is in full.

Click to enlarge

1 lb beef
Salt and pepper
½ onion chopped
1 tblspn minced garlic
¾ lb sliced fresh mushrooms (or 1 can)
2 tblspn butter
3 tblspn flour
10 oz can beef broth (or consommé)
1 tblspn ketchup
½ cup wine
1 cup sour cream

Place beef, onion, and garlic in crockpot. Salt and pepper. Cook on low all day (you can cook on high for less time, but make sure meat is fall apart tender).
About an hour and a half before dinner time, put the mushrooms in with the meat. (Remember my tip on slicing fresh mushrooms)
At dinner time, shake the flour, broth, ketchup, and wine.
Heat butter in skillet until melted then add flour, broth, ketchup, and wine.
Drain meat, onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Cut the meat into bite sized pieces then add it all to skillet. Heat on medium to a boil and stir until gravy thickness.
Stir in the cup of sour cream. Reduce to low heat (simmer).
Cook noodles according to package, drain (rinse if desired.)
Serve Stroganoff over noodles.


Notice, just a little more wine this time. Plus don’t forget to give the dogs the leftover fat. You’ll also notice that instead of adding left over tomato paste to your ketchup bottle, I simplified it by just using ketchup.

Now I’m hungry. Luckily, I got some left over Beef Stroganoff.
Enjoy!

Cooking with Wine – Pot Roast, the Ultimate Comfort Food

A couple months ago, I got a free magazine in the mail. It was free because they want me to subscribe to it. Well, I don’t subscribe to magazines. Sometimes, I get subscriptions as gifts. Sometimes, I get them as rewards for buying other stuff.

Anyway, this magazine is called “Cuisine at Home.” They have a website cuisineathome.com. In the freebie, there are a lot of recipes that I want to try. The crème brulee for one.

Well, this week, chuck roast was on sale so I bought one. Usually I just throw in the crockpot and let it cook four or ten hours, use the juices to make a little gravy, then serve with mashed potatoes and green beans. This time, I thought about that freebie mag and remembered that there was a recipe for pot roast in it. (Click on the picture to make it bigger)

So I run upstairs to the library magazine rack in the master bath and take a look see. Sure enough there’s a recipe called Classic Pot Roast. It’s pretty simple and I only made a few little changes, but it turned out great.

If you know my blog, you know I hate opening a can of tomato paste just for a tablespoon or two of paste. So, I always substitute with ketchup. I’m not a big fan of garlic mashed potatoes, so I usually don’t throw garlic into the gravy juice, but this recipe actually named the gravy “garlic-thyme gravy” so I did add some. The recipe called for 6 cloves, but I opted for ½ teaspoon of minced dry garlic.

I really don’t like cooked celery either but I did it. Wasn’t bad but I think it could be left out next time. The garlic too, now that I think about it. Interesting that the recipe didn’t call for potatoes, but it had a recipe for garlic mashed potatoes with peas at the bottom of the page. I opted to cook the taters in the pot.
Speaking of pot, I also used the crock pot. The recipe called for searing the roast first then slow cooking it. I skipped that part and went right to the crock. No sense making any bigger mess than you have to.

My favorite part is that it calls for a half cup of dry white wine. Yeah, I love cooking with wine. Gives it that little extra zap of flavor. Once again, this is beef, why white? I had some white zin open in the fridge so it got the nod.

Last thing was the recipe called for 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme. I didn’t have any on hand so I used a half tablespoon from the jar. Then it says discard the thyme before serving. Couldn’t do it, it was ground leaves.

So, here’s how I made it and it was delish. Barbi says it was the best pot roast we ever made. I guess that means we’ll do it again… with just few little changes….

1 Each 3-4 pound chuck roast
Salt & Pepper the meat
4 new potatoes peeled and sliced about a half inch thick
¼ cup flour
2 tblspns ketchup
½ cup wine
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 green onions whole
4 carrots sliced about an inch thick
3 ribs celery also sliced about an inch thick
½ teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon Thyme
3 bay leaves
1 can beef broth

Layer the potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion on the bottom of the crock pot. Put the roast right on top.

In a shaker, shake the flour, garlic, thyme, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, wine, and how ever much of the beef broth you can get into the shaker. Mine only hold a cup so it only took about half the can. Shake it up and pour it over the roast along with whatever broth you have left. Throw in the two bay leaves.

The meat will make a lot of juice on it’s own so don’t worry if you were thinking you needed to add more for gravy. Don’t.

I cooked this bad boy eight hours in the crock pot. I did high for the first four, then low the rest. If you’re going to work, I would use low the entire time your gone but it may take another hour to be melt in your mouth tender.

When you get ready to eat, pull the meat and veggies out and put on a platter, then pour the juices into a big skillet. Throw out the two bay leaves. Shake a couple tablespoons flour with a little cold water (just enough to blend it, maybe half cup) then add it to the juices, bring to a boil, then simmer a few minutes. This was a pretty thin gravy, so if you like thicker, shake in some more flour.

Note that I added some cold water. I learned the hard way one time about adding flour directly to boiling hot juice. Talk about making a lumpy gravy. You can’t even shake it to a blend. It’ll make little biscuits for you. You can tell the family it’s a pot roast and dumplings.

Serve and eat. When you’re finished, I would just stack the dishes in the sink for later, because you’re gonna want to unbutton your pants and relax. So, time it right for a good movie, tv show, or have a book ready. Maybe, just a pillow.

This stuff is absolutely marvelous!
Enjoy!