2021 Project :: April Beef Stroganoff

This is part of my 2021 project where each month I choose a recipe from the current issue of Bon Appetit and make one of the dishes, trying as hard as I can to do it exactly the way the recipe says. A real challenge for me.

This month I chose Beef Stroganoff from page 22 of the April 2021 issue of Bon Appetit.

A commenter on BA’s website, who didn’t even make the dish complained “This might be beef stroganoff, but there ain’t nothing russian about it.” (yeah, he didn’t even capitalize Russian). The rest of the comments were talking about how rude this guy was. So of course, I was intrigued and I had to look up real Russian “beef stroganov”.

I guess I’m the idiot, I didn’t even know it was a Russian dish, and I have Russian heritage! I think of it as being similar to Swedish Meatballs, so I assumed it was Scandinavian.

Anyway, the commenter said that there should be no tomatoes and should not be served with rice or pasta because they didn’t have wheat in the peasant fields of Russia. Then he spelled “umami” wrong. So take that with a grain of salt.

The “real” recipes I found did have tomato and were served on a starch.

So, I made this and long story short (too late) it was amazing.

Beef Stroganoff

We could not find a one-pound skirt steak only a two-pounder and it was $25! But we bought it and Greg cut it in two, saving one pound for later.

Here’s the prep for it. I chose to get everything ready in advance (mis en place).

For this recipe you cook the meat whole, let it rest, and cut it into strips at the end just before you put it back in the sauce to warm it up. Or in our case, cook it through. Haha, mine ended up a little rare, even though I cooked it the time allotted per side (yes, I even timed it…with a timer!)

These mushrooms were amazing.

bowl of mushrooms — these were so so good

I served this with steamed broccoli.

bowl of broccoli — side of steamed broccoli

Look at that beautiful sauce.

Beef Stroganoff in pan

This was a winner!

Beef Stroganoff final plate — Tada! Dig in!!

November 24, 2020

Dinner :: Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni

Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni

Ingredients
So, as you’ll see as you read a lot of my stuff, I have a real problem making a recipe exactly as written.

It’s not because I think I know better. Well, sometimes it is. But usually it’s because I was out of an ingredient and felt another would be a suitable replacement. That was what happened today.

I made the Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni from the blog, Meatloaf and Melodrama (great name).

See the original recipe

Here are the changes I made:

Cooking spray instead of olive oil

Instead of sea salt I used seasoned salt because my sea salt was unopened.

I didn’t have dried minced onions, but I had dried minced shallots.

I didn’t have cream so I used whole milk with about a teaspoon of flour whisked in.

I didn’t have cheddar (well I did but it was moldy) so I just used a full block of Colby Jack.

Also after it cooking for the 4 minutes I felt it too bland. So I added some Worcestershire, and a teensy bit of liquid smoke.

I also felt it was too plain looking, so I added some chopped up roasted red peppers and they were really good.

OK so I made some very small changes, but it was good!! We both ate two bowls.
I will keep this one in my arsenal because I almost always have these ingredients on hand (or at least my substitutions) so it’s a quick and easy throw together when you’re out of ideas.

Instant Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni Close up

Close up! Note: the turkey and the macaroni were from Imperfect Foods.

Use my link and get $10 off your first box. Full disclosure, I get $10 too.

November 5, 2020

Dinner :: Mongolian Beef and Noodles

Tonight I made the Mongolian Beef & Noodles from Blue Apron.

meal kit prep

This was…fine. I just had such high hopes. This sounded so good and it was just bland. I ended up adding salt, pepper and soy sauce to the dish while eating it, and it still just tasted like cornstarch. It was almost gummy.

So I would probably not order this kit again, but I may make it again. I would just use way less cornstarch and add some more flavoring to the meat before cooking. Maybe that would help.

Anyway, I made a short video if you want to see it.

But here’s the end result.

Mongolian Beef Dish