Beef Stroganoff

We had a lot of family over for the holidays.  In preparation for their visit, I had stocked up on cube steak thinking I would make my Chicken Fried Steak.  Unfortunately, it never happened; so, now we've got a bunch of cube steak in the freezer which needs to be used before it gets freezer burnt.  So, I've been looking for recipes that use cube steak.  One such recipe is Beef Stroganoff.

The problem I had with the Beef Stroganoff recipes I found is that they use Cream of Mushroom soup.  I don't know what it is, but I really do not like canned soup nor recipes that use them.  Maybe it's the preservatives - but there is just some after taste that I don't like in a lot of canned foods.

So, I set out to prepare a Beef Stroganoff recipe that didn't use canned Cream of Mushroom soup.

Serves: 4 people

 Ingredients

• 1 Tbl oil
• 1 medium (or ½ large) onion, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 8 oz mushrooms, ¼-inch sliced
• 1 pound cubed steak, cut into strips
• ½ cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbl oil
• 3 Tbl unsalted butter
• 3 Tbl flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1 cup sour cream
• salt/pepper to taste
• Noodles, cooked according to directions on package

Directions

1. Add 1 Tbl oil to heated pan and then add sliced onion and chopped carrot.  Cook until onion starts to brown. Add muchrooms and cook until tender.  Remove from heat and reserve
2. In a separate sauce pan, add 3 Tbl butter and 3 Tbl flour to make a roux.  Cook until flour starts to turn a light brown.  Then whisk in 2 cups beef broth and 1 cup heavy cream.  Continue cooking, whisking frequently, until thickenen.  Add in reserved vegetables and fresh thyme and simmer.
3. Meanwhile, combine ½ cup flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp garlic powder in a plastic bag, shake to combine.  Then add strips of cube steak and shake to coat thoroughly.  Put 2 Tbl oil in heated pan, add meat and saute until meat is cooked through.  Add meat to sauce and vegetables
4. Continue simmering until heated through, stirring occasionally to keep from burning on the bottom of the pan.  
5. Stir in 1 cup sour cream and heat through.  Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
6. Remove thyme stem and serve over cooked noodles

Notes

• This can be an inexpensive, and relatively easy, recipe to prepare.  Our local Kroger store has a bin where they sell meat that has reached its 'sell by' date and a similar bin for vegetables (what I like to call the 'used meat' and 'used vegetable' bins).  So, I only paid about $3 for the meat and 89¢ for the mushrooms.
• When making the sauce, be sure to select a sauce pan that is large enough to hold everything that will be added later and (if you're like us), to serve from.
• Beef Stroganoff is traditionally served over egg noodles; however, I just use whatever pasta I happen to have on hand.  When I made this recipe, I used Farfalle (bow tie or butterfly shaped) pasta simply because I had ½ box that I wanted to use up.
• Try adding ¼ tsp dried thyme to the sauce in place of the fresh thyme sprig
• Try using thinly sliced round steak in place of cubed steak.  This would make it easier to trim the fat off of the meat.  I suppose you could also use chicken in place of beef - but then it would be Chicken Stroganoff.
• I'm not really sure the purpose of coating the meat with flour before cooking - this was just something I saw in a lot of the recipes I reviewed.  Try just seasoning the meat with salt and garlic powder (or garlic salt) before cooking