Lesson VI - making Beef Stroganoff
They cracked open a bottle of wine. She sat at the kitchen island getting ready to watch him work his magic while she waited until it was time for her to do her part. He did a saucy little walk to the fridge and then grabbed his meat – a nice eye of round roast from the fridge. Stepping up to the cutting board he slapped the meat down onto it and started cutting. Before long, it was all cut up. Remembering lesson II on searing, he heated up a suitable pan on medium (5) and they waited 5 minutes to let it heat up. While they were waiting, they reminisced about that trip where they got caught in the blizzard and the had to pull the van over for a couple of hours. They climbed in the back and had torn off each other’s’ clothes when… no time for that now! There was work to do! He turned the heat up to med/high while she grabbed the butter. After a few minutes to let the pan get really hot, she slapped a hunk of butter in there while he grabbed the meat. The meat entered the pan and it began to sizzle and pop. After a couple of minutes, he flipped them again and again until the beef chunks were done to perfection. The meat went into the slow cooker for 6 hours, so they grabbed the bottle of wine and polished it off watching a couple Ryan Reynolds Rom Coms…
When the slow cooker was almost done, she turned the pan on medium while he grabbed the mushrooms, then he washed, cleaned and sliced them up. Now she turned the pan to med/high like before, but she purposely left the juices from the beef in the pan. Searing the mushrooms in those juices and hot butter will take them to the next level. Feeling a little tipsy from the wine she gave him the googly eye and said “is that a pepper mill in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” “No. That’s Jimmy. My Cranky Jimmy’s Original!” and he pulled the bottle of his apron pocket and sprinkled a little of that Original onto the sizzling mushrooms. While he finished the mushrooms, she started the sauce on the back burner. She thrust the beef from the slow cooker into the sauce while he did the same with mushrooms. They served it up on some egg noodles.
If you’ve been following along, it makes me really Cranky that people don’t put any effort into making really good food. They come home tired, and feel like it’s too much effort to make something like homemade Shake and Bake or even Beef Stroganoff. But I can show you that you can do it with only a little effort, and a pleasant side effect is that your Bitsy Wumpums will start bringing out the scented candles. She might even give you the googly eye… This blog focuses on technique rather than the recipes. You should thoroughly read this blog and the recipe before starting. I will do a sexy little narrative, because who doesn't like a sexy twist, and then I will recap in plain English. At the end of each episode, I will rate them with Hubba Hubba points, from 1 to 5.
Today, we’re gonna do a main dish. It’s actually really quite easy and it’s a fave in our house, Beef Stroganoff. You should review lesson II on searing as there are 2 ingredients in this that require that. For the beef, we actually use bison when we can, but we typically use whatever red meat we need to use up. Sometimes that’s beef tenderloin (YUM!!) and sometimes it’s brisket. Now, you’re probably saying hold up here Jimmy, if you put beef tenderloin in the slow cooker for 6 hours, you gonna have soup. That’s why it’s important to sear the meat first. And as for the mushrooms, we only use brown or cremini mushrooms in his blog. Just in case you don’t know… creminis are baby portabella mushrooms. I personally find the creminis taste better than portabellas, they are denser, and they just have more flavour. They are easier to work with, you can just wash them and slice them. Portabellas are so big you have to chop them up and the black spore things get everywhere, they are more spongey, but you do you. As long as you don’t buy white button mushrooms. If you do, I can’t help you.
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This one isn't very complicated and very little work, but it is so good that it is worth 4 Hubba Hubbas! Bring out the essential oils... you getting a backrub AND a bubble bath tonight!! You should have that hockey helmet handy, just in case...
Get your red meat seared up nice and good before you put it in the slow cooker! Refer to Lesson II.
Now get a nice sear on those mushrooms. Remember, we use creminis (brown) in this blog, or whatever your jam is, just not white button mushrooms... refer to Lesson II.
Beef Stroganoff