In Russia – Stroganoff is a popular dish to serve to friends when they come over. I think that it dwells from the fact that you can use a tough meat and cook it until it is tender. I never see fine cuts of meat used and most of the time any meat is used along with the beef. So in effect Russians just call it stroganoff and no one worries about what kind of meat is in it…
Stroganoff in Russia is not just served on noodles as is common place in America. Stroganoff is served with french fries, rice, mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, pasta noodles, grechka, bread and anything else that catches your fancy. If it is a starch or grain it can have stroganoff on top of it. In fact many places that Sveta and I have gone to eat at use stroganoff as a side dish on grechka…
I saw in the grocery store five years ago in Russia when I first came here. That they take old french fries not sold for the day and put them in a plastic container. Then they take a stroganoff and ladle over top. The container is sealed and priced then chilled and sold as a meal. Cold like a sandwich would be sold and I see that most stores do this to use up left over foods. The restaurants take it to a new level and serve it as a main dish with all the trimmings…
So lets have a Russian favorite that will be easy to make and you can ladle it over top of just about anything that you so desire. Maybe even that left over pizza that you have from last night…
Lets make a simple Stroganoff…
Ingredients:
1 lb stew meat or any meat and cube it
1 pkg brown gravy mix (store bought)
1 small can mushroom stems and pieces
1 pint sour cream
2 tablespoons dehydrated onions
1/4 cup cooking wine or not if you so desire but stroganoff has this as a real ingredient for flavor.
1 cup water
Directions:
First cook the meat in a skillet at medium heat. I prefer this to get the blood cooked out before adding to the rest of the ingredients. You can cook this a day ahead of time is you desire…
Then once you have the meat cooked add the meat, gravy mix, dehydrated onion, wine and water in crock pot on low temperature for 6-8 hours. Please make sure that you put the lid on the crock pot…
After around 6-8 hours remove lid, increase temp to high, add mushrooms, cook some more until liquid thickens. About another hour. Yes you may want to add some more gravy mix to thicken it if you desire…
Then stir in sour cream and serve immediately over rice, noodles, grechka, slice of bread or what ever…
Yummy…
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!
PS: This is a recipe for people that work and need to have food easily available for the family when they get home. This whole dish can be created in a skillet and in a few hours. Just use raw onions and a tender meat and cook in the same skillet that the meat cooks in. Just add sour cream at the very last because it will water out real bad. You want a thick creamy product…
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