Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Beef Stroganoff: It's What's For Dinner

     I kept noticing "skirt steak" at the grocer's.  Never had it but it's priced like-- well, steak; it must pretty good.

     Found myself hungry for beef stroganoff this morning (this is what comes of listening to Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite!) and it seemed me that skirt steak would do nicely in it.

     Stopped off at the market on the way home.  Alas, no green onions, no spring onions; I made do with leeks and fresh chives.  Skirt steak they had, and good brown mushrooms, golden German egg noodles, beef stock, a little whipping cream (I'm not a huge fan of sour cream, though I made sure to buy some for Tam), and I had the spices and flour.

      Used the shortcut for thickening (flour the meat, cook it, set aside; when you add it back in and then pour broth over, stir and the sauce will thicken wonderfully.  Um, keep stirring as it comes to boil.  This is like making gravy). I added an Anaheim pepper and in hindsight, I do not think adding one Serrano would have been out of order -- I made enough for four or five people and the cream would have smoothed out the heat.

     The quick version is, oh yes!  Skirt steak works very well in stroganoff.

     N.B.: some of Scandinavian countries make a version with sausage instead of beef.  This is worth considering.  Kielbasa?  Chorizo?

6 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Meat with noodles.

How can you go wrong? :)

Anonymous said...

Skirt steak...Wood fire in a shallow BBQ should only be about 2 " above the coal. Flip it every few seconds until it is seared on the outside medium in the middle. Primo

Gewehr98 said...

Not that one can get it commercially, but my parents raised my sister and me on Venison Stroganoff and Venison Swiss Steak. Just thinking about it now - oh, crap, now I have to go raid a friend's freezer for some elk or venison, so excuse me...

Bruce said...

Used to be skirt steak was a cheap cut, found at diners and your Greek American coffee shops. Then it was discovered and is more available and more expensive. Still, skirt steak and eggs with fries is a great anytime meal. Back in the 1970s, there was a place on I think LaSalle Street in Chicago the did good skirtsteak. It was specially good at 0400 after a night of boozing.

Bruce said...

Used to be skirt steak was a cheap cut, found at diners and your Greek American coffee shops. Then it was discovered and is more available and more expensive. Still, skirt steak and eggs with fries is a great anytime meal. Back in the 1970s, there was a place on I think LaSalle Street in Chicago the did good skirtsteak. It was specially good at 0400 after a night of boozing.

Roberta X said...

Now your comments have made me hungry again! :) I'm going to have try grilling a skirt steak, or a flank steak.