"I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world."

M.F.K. Fisher, The Gastronomical Me

Monday, March 22, 2010

Beef Stroganoff with a Twist

When my husband asked me to "make something with ground beef" on Saturday, I thought to things: Tacos and hamburgers. Neither of these things sounded good a the time, so after some hemming and hawing, I went into the kitchen, began to defrost the meat, and stood, weight on one hip, in front of my pantry cabinet. Sigh. I pulled out cream of mushroom soup, an onion, olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper. I wanted white wine, but I was out. Now that the creative juices were flowing, things came together easily. Here's what happened.

INGREDIENTS:
for the sauce...
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1 tbsp olive oil
garlic salt
pepper
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tbsp white wine (optional)

for the beef...
2 small onions/ 1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil

3 pounds ground chuck
garlic salt
pepper

METHOD:
What's great about this dish is that the sauce takes as much time to cook as the beef does to brown. In total, it takes about 25 minutes from the time you dice the onions to when you serve to finished dish.

I'll give instructions for the sauce first:
Combine the soup, milk, and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine. Once the sauce starts to boil, add garlic salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the meat is brown. Then, add the sour cream and frozen peas.

Now for the beef:
Sautee onions in the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once they are clear, add the ground chuck and the garlic salt and pepper. Cook on medium-high heat until the meat browns. Spoon out the extra grease that runs off after the meat browns.

And finally:
Now that both the sauce and the beef are cooked, add the sauce to the beef. Turn the heat to low as you combine the two. Serve in bowls over pasta (or alone!). Yum!

Enjoy!
Miss Browning

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