Beef Stroganoff

One of my all time favorites, Beef Stroganoff (sometimes spelled Stroganov), developed in Russia in the second half of the 1800s. The "supposed" original recipe had no mushrooms. It is often served with noodles or rice, but I am a mashed potatoes guy, although I have also had it with noodles. I checked a number of serving suggestions before I wrote this, and a couple mentioned that Russians often serve their famous dish with crisp potato sticks, which are similar to shoestring (French) fries. I also found another serving suggestion which included mashed potatoes as being common in Russia. YES! As with all popular recipes, there are numerous variations for Beef Stroganoff, including the addition by some of white wine, some use Port wine, some use already prepared mustard of the Dijon type, some use a portion of tomato sauce. I even found that some use no sour cream! Now that's just over the line! I hope Vladimir Putin has their computer accounts hacked.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons neutral oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound of pretty lean, boneless beef, cut into strips or small chunks
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons flour (well mixed with the stock)
3 tablespoons sour cream (regular or lower fat style is fine)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon salt (use according to the amount of salt in the beef stock)

Heat the oil and butter over medium heat in a large heavy skillet. Add the onion and meat, then reduce the heat to medium low. Lightly brown the meat as the onions soften. Add the mustard and stir to mix. Add the beef stock (reserving about 4 tablespoons to mix with the flour). Bring to a light simmer and cook until the beef is tender. Add the salt and pepper, mix. Gradually add the flour mixed with the beef stock, stirring constantly until the broth thickens, giving the dish a couple of minutes to cook to eliminate the raw flour taste (you can vary the amount of flour/stock, according to how thick you like the sauce). Add the sliced mushrooms and continue cooking for just another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream.   

I had my "Beef Stroganoff" with mashed red skin potatoes and sliced tomatoes with homemade honey French dressing. * I tried washing the potatoes with easy on the skin detergent, but the potatoes still had red skin. Sometimes you just can't win.

* This is the link to my article with the homemade honey French dressing: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/08/homemade-honey-french-dressing.html

WORD HISTORY:
Pound-English has three different words "pound," but this is the noun for the "measurement of weight." The word goes back to Indo European "pen" (which had a variant, or was the variant form of, "spen"), which had the notion "to stretch, to draw out." This gave Latin "pondus," which meant, "weight," and the derived, "pondo," meaning, "by weight." This was borrowed into Old Germanic as "punda," with the meaning, "weight," but also with the developing sense of "a specific measurement of weight." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "pund," with the meanings, "measurement of weight, measurement of money, a pint in liquid." The spelling changed to "pound" several centuries later. Its relatives include: German "Pfund," Low German Saxon "Pund," Dutch "pond," Swedish "pund," Icelandic "pund," Danish "pund." Frisian once had "pund/pond." I did not find a form in Norwegian, although Old Norse had "pund," but it may not have been retained by the dialects that developed into Norwegian. Note: The Danes ruled Norway for a few centuries, with DANISH being the official language, although Norwegian dialects remained among many people. So exactly why the Old Norse and Danish "pund" did not become part of Norwegian, I have no idea.