Beef Stroganoff

In days of yore, suburban housewives whipped up Beef Stroganoff for company and hamburger Stroganoff for family.

This is a quick, easy dish that has fallen out of favor, although there were 584,000 entries in Google. Maybe it's the beef or maybe it's the sour cream or maybe it's because everyone just eats cheese pizza now.

Actually, Beef Stroganoff is something that kids like, so keep that in mind. Because I never see recipes for the dish or see it listed on restaurant menus, it tends to fly below my radar. This week I remembered I had promised myself I would make it soon. The Thanksgiving turkey was history; the time was ripe.

I had two small (8 oz. each) "petite sirloins" in the freezer; I had onions and sour cream and beef broth. Oooops--needed mushrooms, which Significant Other picked up at Trader Joe's.

Got out the New York Times cookbook recipe, and discovered it didn't even call for mushrooms. Mierda! I would incorporate them anyhow. The times called for filet, but who serves that on Tuesday night? I mean, really.

The cookbook also said to saute the onion with the beef and then discard the onion! Discard the onion? How stupid is that? The onion stayed where it was. I sauteed the beef and onion on high heat and poured the sauce over it. Cooked up a few noodles. This was good.

Why did it ever go out of style? There were only 3 tablespoons of sour cream and we ate it two nights in a row, so that's less than 1 tablespoon of sour cream per serving and four ounces of beef. We aren't talking diet busters here. Well, out of style is out of style.

I wandered into the Web and found some truly disgusting recipes, recipes calling for Campbell's mushroom soup and catsup and green peppers and . . . yuck. Not Beef Stroganoff. So maybe after the food police finished with it (non-fat sour cream anyone?) the flavor of the dish took a nosedive.

I don't know. The mushrooms were tiny and delicious. The thin sliced onion added a lot. I will have to dig my old hamburger Stroganoff recipe out.

Time for a revival. If I find the perfect recipe, I'll publish it. In the meantime, you're welcome to peruse the 584,000 Google entries. If there is any mention of margarine, green pepper, mushroom soup or non-fat sour cream, run like hell.

Grapeshot