My Attempt at Dad’s Famous Beef Stroganoff.
I have a lot of memories from my childhood that involve my dad whipping up some rather impressive (and tasty) dishes. (I won’t call them meals, because unless there were canned veggies in the cupboard, it was very rare that he would include any to his concoctions). And I’m calling them, concoctions, simply, because if you ask him for the recipe for anything, he shrugs and says he doesn’t remember (which makes me believe it was probably different every time depending on what we had in stock) Lol. While this recipe is specific to Beef Stroganoff, and my attempt to make it taste as similar to the usual stroganoff he would make; another example of his cooking style was a dish I referred to as “Hamburger Helper on Steroids” which essentially was the box hamburger helper and other added ingredients, doctored with more cheese(s) butter/oil, salt and pepper, etc.
And while hamburger helper on steroids was usually cooked in a frying pan, my dad’s famous beef stroganoff (what I can recall) was always made in a crockpot.
On the side, he served bread (not toast) with butter so you could make “sandwich” out of the noodle creation 🤪 I did not butter any bread for this meal, but I did buy a gluten free baguette which was delicious.
I started by cutting chunks of sirloin steak into rather thick pieces, put olive oil in a pan and waited for it to warm up (stove on medium high) and seared all sides of the steak chunks until it was just brown… set steak aside.
(For seasonings, I stuck to salt and pepper because I had a feeling I’d add more later but would rather play it safe and keep things simple).
In the same oil, I scraped any of the grease left from the steak and used that, with a splash of white wine to then sauté my onions, mushrooms (1 white onion, 1package of mushrooms) followed by garlic (3 cloves) when the onions/mushrooms were close to being done (3-5 mins)…I then add the chopped garlic).
Dumping the onion/mushroom/garlic and all of the yummy “sauce” it made, I add the mixture and the steak I had set aside into the crockpot.
Regarding mushrooms: I have seen recipes that call for cremini, but I knew my dad always used canned mushrooms). (1 8z can). I diverted from canned, and used sliced white mushrooms instead.
From here, I added my beef broth, bouillon, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, a dollop (2 dollops :) ) of sour cream, a couple tablespoons (~25% of the can) of cream of mushroom soup, more seasonings (Italian seasoning, salt pepper to taste) and let it cook for 1 hour without lifting the lid!
Because I am gluten-free, I have to have “special pasta” however, I made two different parts of pasta, one with gluten-free noodles and the other with egg noodles. My dad usually would combine the noodles in with the sauce, which always tasted amazing. However, for this recipe, I left the noodles out and just scooped the sauce on top.
After one hour on medium/high in the crockpot, I opened the lid, stirred the mixture around, and as needed, I added cornstarch by putting a strainer into the crockpot and whisking the cornstarch through the strainer into the sauce.
I let the crockpot go for another hour on medium/low, which ended up being perfect! I waited to cook the noodles until close to the end of it being ready and added more salt and pepper (don’t worry. Every salt and pepper add was marginal LOL).
Well, it didn’t taste exactly like my dad’s famous recipe, however, I was pretty impressed with how it came out. The sour cream and cream of mushroom was definitely 2 of my dad’s “secret sauce ingredients”, and I always remember him using Worcestershire sauce (all delicious!)
Reference pictures of the cornstarch whisked into the sauce, as well as the beef / mushroom onion mixture in the crockpot! :)
Needless to say I have taken after my dad, where I don’t have a precise recipe in terms of what exactly I used, but I think that by eyeballing it, it turned out pretty well!!
One last thing to add: since I didn’t include the noodles into the crockpot, I made sure that every noodle was coated in the beef/mushroom sauce as evenly as possible.
2.18.22: moring glory muffins
2.18.21: kid mask leash
2.18.20: tip-sy tuesday: sewing machine needle
2.18.19: Cathy updates a fireplace
