Tuesday, March 20, 2007

At least he gave his mother credit



Hamburger Stroganoff
Faster I’m Starving 100 Dishes in 25 Minutes Or Less Copyright 2006

1 large onion
1 tablespoons olive or corn oil
½ pound presliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic I used fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup sour cream I used lite sour cream
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Peel the onion and cut it into ½-inch pieces. Put the oil into a large frying pan or wok and begin heating over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes, or until it has begun to soften. Add the mushrooms, garlic, salt, and black pepper and cook about 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms soften. Transfer the onions/mushroom mixture and any juices to a place and then set aside.

Add the ground beef to the pan, breaking it up into small chunks, and let it brown 5 minutes over medium-heat, stirring occasionally. Drain and discard the fat.

Put the onion/mushroom mixture back into the pan with the meat. Add the sour cream, ketchup, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover and turn down to medium-low heat. I added some flour to the meat first, since I was afraid the sour cream might curdle if I didn't. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve immediately. Or set aside until ready to eat, and then reheat briefly. I served this over whole wheat egg noodles.
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I made this a week or two ago when I wanted something without a tomato sauce (since I was making too many other tomato-sauced dishes that week). This was one of those unremarkable yet satisfying dinners. It was simple enough that I would make it again if I happened to have the ingredients on hand.

This book was from the library. It's written by a man and his mother (I'm not sure if she did much of the writing but I think they were mostly her recipes). The premise is that this man and then he and his wife never really cooked until his mother intervened (and until the man and his wife became parents and had to start doing crazy things like cooking their own food instead of ordering take-out all of the time). There's a brief humorous introduction to each recipe, or at least an attempt to be humorous. The graphics are 50s style but there aren't any pictures of the recipes.

This book wouldn't add anything to my personal collection but a beginner cook would probably get some use out of it (although there are better cooks for beginners).

Blast From The Past: Beef Kabobs With Oriental Sauce from June 2006. I can't wait to start grilling again. I could have grilled all winter but I just don't enjoy cooking outdoors in cold weather.

Question of the Day: At what age did you start doing a lot of home cooking? Did you always cook or were you a late bloomer?

6 comments:

Heather said...

I really started at 24 when I got my own place and then even more with the SO moved in.

MommyProf said...

I started as a kid, because I was blessed with a family who would let me experiment in the kitchen. I made some unbelievably horrifying things, but I got good enough to cook all of the family's meals when I was in high school.

My mom used to make hamburger stroganoff a lot and I loved it. Spouse and Offspring hate all things stroganoff for some reason, so I haven't had it in years.

Anonymous said...

i started really cooking freshman year in highschool, now (im a junior) im the only one in my family who really cooks the meals, my parents only do when they HAVE to hehe. but i love it so i wouldnt stop for anything

Jennifer said...

I always cookied with my mom but I reallly started cooking when I moved out from my mom and in with my boyfriend now husband.

I love stroganoff but my husband hates sourcream so I found a recipe that looks creamy but has no SC.

Anonymous said...

I started dabbling in cooking about the time I started high school. Didn't do many different things, but I loved to make cakes. They were homemade from scratch as well as the icing. I always made them for church functions.

Jan

Anonymous said...

Like Jan, I started with baking chocolate chip cookies, basic scratch cakes, and brownies in high school. All I could do in college was boil noodles for pasta and kraft mac & cheese! After college my favorite meal was spaghetti noodles with lots of butter, parmesan cheese & salt - alternated with diet meals - geez. My future husband occasionally cooked and bought The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - I recall a few delicious homemade pizzas and a relevatory roast chicken. I had always really wanted to learn to cook, but was extremely busy with school, grad school, etc., so as soon as we got married, my old-fashioned nature kicked in and I really wanted to learn to cook. I started with better homes & gardens, then got into the ATK book and then got REALLY into cooking. I honestly have zero talent for putting flavors together, though I'm great at following a recipe to the T (LOL), so ATK was a perfect fit for me. Soon I was making gourmet meals, and for the last 7 years, we've been eating amazing food, even though when I occasionally wing it, I STILL have very little skill at making flavors go together. However, thanks to ATK/Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country videos, I'm learning more about why they do what they do, and can apply those techniques to my less verbose cookbooks recipes.