What’s Cooking Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff

Call it the Great Dinner Debate or maybe the Rural/Urban Dinner Divide. When to use the term ‘dinner’ for a meal definitely differs based on where you’re from.

Growing up on a west-central Illinois farm, my family used ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ for the midday meal, but the evening meal was always ‘supper.’ More metropolitan folks tend to call the noon meal ‘lunch’ and save ‘dinner’ for evening.

So who’s correct? Actually…both!

Dinner by definition is the main meal of the day – it’s not attached to a particular time. On the farm, we tended to eat the main/larger meal at noon in the middle of the working day and a lighter meal in the evening.

Folks in town often eat their bigger meal at night….unless of course it’s Thanksgiving Dinner, which all of us probably eat at noon 🙂

Anyway, Beef Stroganoff was always a family favorite for Sunday dinner (our noon meal), but you could eat it whenever you want. The secret ingredient in this rich & creamy sauce – ketchup! It adds a little punch of flavor and just the right amount of tang.

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lbs. beef steak, cubed
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 3 fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 Tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup sour cream
•  Black pepper to taste
• Parsley (for garnish)
• 12 oz. egg noodles or dumpling noodles (my favorite!) – cook according to package directions

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet & saute the onion. Add the cubes of beef and garlic. Cook until beef is browned, stirring occasionally.
2. Add mushrooms.
3. Add flour and stir. The flour should ‘soak up’ the butter and juices from the meat.
4. Add whipping cream in small amounts and stir thoroughly between each addition (If you add too much at once your sauce will have lumps of flour).
5. Cook until sauce starts to simmer and thicken, stirring occasionally.
6. Add ketchup & Worcestershire sauce and stir in completely.
7. Add sour cream and stir in completely.
8. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.
9. Place your cooked noodles on plates to serve and divide sauce evenly over the top.
10. Sprinkle with parsley to garnish.