The Food in My Beard - Beef Stroganoff

Monday, June 09, 2008

I think Beef Stroganoff is kind of a wintery meal for most people. For Mandi, she craves it when she is sick. I know in the afternoon when she isn’t feeling too well. She says to me, “can you make me something yummy and eggy noodley tonight?” I hadn’t made her stroganoff in awhile so I decided to go a different way with it which was a real risk because if Mandi is in the mood for something, it can be very specific. I wanted to make a Jamie Oliver recipe I saw him make on the mushroom episode of Jamie at Home. I usually make this sans mushrooms but I wanted to add some today. I did not have the fresh mushrooms or venison he uses, but I was looking more for a method anyways.

(Note about the recipe. It is really lame that this recipe is only available in the US. It doesn’t even make sense to me. I just had my friend who lives there get it and email it to me. I was going to post it on here but I don’t want the food network or Jamie to get mad at me!!)

Dried mushrooms in a bowl ready to be reconstituted. Instead of using water and losing all the flavor, use a liquid you will be cooking with.

I used the brandy needed later in the recipe. (What am I gonna do with all the rest of the brandy??? I will look something up and get back to you.)

Sliced garlic, diced onions

Parsley leaves for garnish, stems for cooking.

“finger sized” pieces of tenderloin.

They are covered in salt pepper and paprika.

Slight brown on the onions and garlic.

Squeeze out the liquid from the reconstituted mushrooms and save it to add in the pan later. I added some more brandy as well because that wasn’t quite enough.

Here I am pouring the brandy into the pan. I have my lighter out and ready to flame it up…

Wohooo! Fire! *(Note about the fire, Mandi didn’t get the pic in time so I had to simulate it. It's cool though I don’t think people will notice. not her fault... she was sick remember?)

Crème fresh added at the last min.

He uses rice but I love this with egg noodles.

Pickles on stroganoff? Jamie you must be crazy! It turned out he was crazy in an awesome way because it was delicious. I almost didn’t even put them on but it was great.