I came from a very traditional Italian family. The only ethnic food we ever ate was Italian. Needless to say, I had a very limited palate. When I was in college, I would occasionally go out for Chinese food with my friends, but that was about it.
When I got married, my husband was in the Air Force; we moved to Ohio, and my world changed. No bagels, no good pizza or Italian sausage, but I met people from all over the country through our association with other military families. My food horizons were greatly expanded, and I ate things like corn bread, hush puppies, and Mexican food. These all seem pretty commonplace to me now, but wow, was my mouth having fun! Look what I had missed all these years! Of course this was the late 60's and there were also things like salad with fruit cocktail, whipped cream, coconut and marshmallows. This was like dessert, but eaten as a salad. Some things were a bit hard for me to get used to.
My first cookbook was The Better Homes and Gardens Fiftieth Anniversary Addition. It had a gold cover. I still have it and I still use it. The pages are torn and dirty and I recently bought the newest edition. Since there are some old favorites not in the new edition, I kept the old one. One of the things I used to make from that cookbook was beef stroganoff.
It was pretty much my go to stroganoff recipe until I got the Slow Cooker Revolution, published by America's Test Kitchen. Their recipe for stroganoff, puts my old one to shame. This one has so much more flavor! The only change I made to this recipe was to increase the amount of sour cream. Also, it calls for Dijon mustard mixed in with the sour cream, but I left that out. There are some unusual ingredients like dried porcini mushrooms and soy sauce, but as I have said before, these really boost the flavor. In case you were wondering, packages of dried porcini mushrooms are usually on the shelf above the regular mushrooms in the produce section. If you can't find them there, ask the grocer.
The prep time for this recipe is about 30 minutes. You can cut down on the time a bit if you use pre-sliced mushrooms and use a food processor to chop your onions, garlic and porcini. Trust me, it's well worth the time and effort. This is another recipe that you can prep and night, refrigerate and put in the crockpot before you leave for work in the morning. Also, you can make this on one of your weekend cooking days, and freeze it until you need it. If you freeze it, its best to put the sour cream in just before serving, but it won't ruin it if you freeze it with the sour cream. Serve this over buttered noodles and add a vegetable for a great meal. Enjoy!
Beef Stroganoff from Slow Cooker Revolution
3 Tablespoons olive oil - you can substitute vegetable oil if you like
1 1/2 lbs. mushrooms rinsed and sliced
salt and pepper
3 onions minced
6 cloves garlic minced
1/4 c. tomato paste
1/2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms rinsed and minced
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth plus more as needed
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 bay leaves
2 lbs. beef chuck roast, or other suitable cut of beef
1 8 oz. container sour cream - you can use low fat or fat free
Put one Tablespoon of oil into a skillet and add the mushrooms and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cover and cook on medium high for about 5 minutes. Remove the cover and cook another ten minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated. Transfer mushrooms to the slow cooker. While the mushrooms are cooking, chop the onions, garlic and porcini mushrooms. After you remove the mushrooms from the pan add the remaining oil, onions, garlic, porcini, tomato paste and thyme. Mix well so the tomato paste is incorporated and lower the heat to medium. Cook until the onions are softened, about 5 minutes. While the onions are cooking, cut up the beef. When the onions are softened, add the flour and cook for about three minutes. Add the chicken broth and stir, raise the heat to medium high. When the sauce begins to thicken, transfer it to the slow cooker along with the bay leaves, wine, and soy sauce. Finally add the raw beef to the slow cooker. Give everything a good stir. Cook on low for 9 - 11 hours or on high for 5 - 6. I prefer not to cook it on high because the beef seems to get a bit tough. When it is cooked, remove about a cup of the sauce to a bowl. Add the sour cream to the bowl and mix well. This process tempers the sour cream and keeps it from curdling when added to the pot. Add the sour cream mixture back to the slow cooker and stir well. Serve over buttered noodles. Please let me know how you liked this!
Happy Cooking!
Carol
a.k.a. Nonnie
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