Beef Stroganoff Sounds a Little Like Beef Strokin’ Off.

This post is for my friend Julia, who is about the most gorgeous woman I have ever known.  She’s 7 months pregnant, and we should all be so lucky to look like she does while gestating.  I met Julia in college – we were in the same sorority – and she is in many of my stories from my senior year (her sophomore year) in college, but I’ll just give you a taste of how great she is with the tamest of these stories. 

 

Our sorority (and all the others, as well as several groups of “independent” ladies [not that we were dependent per se, just affiliated and had better parties]) had a powder-puff football team.  Powder-puff, of course, being code for “try to kill each other, ladies.”  Football injuries in the intramural leagues got so bad my senior year that, except in dire cases of hospitalization, they could no longer be used as an excuse for missing homework or class (and let me tell you, trying to finish homework when you are laid up with a terrible football injury in a no-pads, full-contact league was no joke).  The faculty hated powder-puff football.

 

Julia’s the one with her arm hooked around my neck.

 

So one game (probably my last), we were just playing ridiculously.  Pascale twisted her ankle, someone else got cut because I remember blood on the field, and then I injured my thumb.  Or maybe Pascale faked her twisted ankle because she could see I was in pain.  It was just my thumb, though!  No big deal, right?  I could totally still tackle, I mean, pull flags.  Except that it must’ve been a big deal, because the game was finally called due to injury and Julia bundled me into her little, yellow Beetle and took me to the Walla Walla ER.  Broken thumb.  Julia stayed with me the whole time, essentially spending her entire Saturday afternoon in the hospital, and then drove me home with a prescription for painkillers.  I had a tough time taking notes in class that week, I can tell you, and my right thumb joint is still larger than my left.

 

Well, Miss Julia, you are a peach, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this beef stroganoff recipe (no photos because it’s all been consumed).  Think of my broken thumb, all the times you did my makeup, and the Everclear you freely passed around in your room while you do.

 

Beef Stroganoff (Amazing)

 

Lots of butter

Egg noodles (I made the whole package because I like leftovers)

1/2 yellow onion, chopped up nice n small

Beef strips – get yourself some lean steak or even pre-cut stir-fry meat and slice it up really thin.  It sometimes helps to partially freeze the beef so that you can cut it even thinner

A whole bunch of mushrooms, sliced up small (I used, like, half of a Costco package of those giant white mushrooms)

2ish Tablespoons of flour

1 can beef broth

1 16-oz carton of full-fat sour cream

Fresh ground pepper

 

Boil those noodles!  Now, chop up the onion and mushrooms and sauté them in a bunch of butter.  I probably used 2-3 tablespoons at this stage.

 

When the mushrooms are nice and soft and brown, spoon them out of your pan and into a holding dish of some sort.  Add some more butter to your pan and then add the beef.  Brown the beef strips nicely on all sides but don’t cook them so long that they get tough.  Remove the beef from the pan.

 

Okay, you might be thinking, more butter? but yes, more butter.  Probably 2-3 tablespoons again.  Melt it up nicely in your pan and then add the flour.  Stir the flour into the butter and let it cook for a few minutes, then add your can of beef broth.  Keep stirring until it thickens up nicely, then add back your mushrooms, onions, and beef and then add the sour cream and mix it all together. 

 

Now comes the pepper.  No stroganoff is complete without lots and lots of fresh, ground pepper.  Mmmmmm.

 

Serve over cooked egg noodles and enjoy.

 

You might notice that there is no salt in this recipe.  I LOVE salt, but I prefer to add it at the table.  Your butter will likely have salt, and you just never know how sour that cream will be.  Julia, I know you can’t have wine right now, but a dark, full-bodied Merlot pairs so nicely with this.

 

Feed that baby some stroganoff tonight!