Beef Stroganoff

Ok last night I made my version of Beef Stroganoff. It's my version because half the ingredients I needed, I didn't have. So I improvised (as I do). It turned out okay though and we didn't get food poisoning, so that's a good sign!

I started out with one large onion, chopped finely (well, as finely as I could before I gave up due to runny eyes) and a few cloves of garlic. The garlic is to taste - I am absolutely addicted to garlic so I put in three big cloves - if you're not that much of a fan, one or two will suffice. Put them in a big pot and cook until the bite has gone out of them. Now if you're looking at the pictures throughout this blog, let me just say something - yes, there's not a lot of food, haha. The main reason for this is because we are on a controlled diet, which means we are only allowed certain portions of things. For example, you might want to put two onions in, or twice the amount of meat - it just depends on who you are cooking for. The end result with these ingredients was rather good though - there was plenty, almost too much! But I would have liked a little more meat, but that was all we were allowed.

Next I remembered about the rice, so I put a pot of water on to boil and added 1 cup of white rice to the water. We hadn't had rice for so long so I thought it was about time, and it would go well with the stroganoff. Then I went to the fridge and had a look around - I saw a packet of tomatoes that looked like they were going off. They were only little, so I grabbed out four, cut them into quarters and added them to the onions/garlic. They were still red and nice, but a little mushy on the outside. I know, you're probably thinking "Tomatoes with stroganoff?" but it worked well, and it used up some of the tomatoes so they wouldn't go mouldy! See, I'm a thinker! I added them so early into the cooking because I like it when tomatoes are so well cooked that they just fall apart, and their skins come off. It was perfect. To this, I added some mixed herbs to give it some flavour, and some black pepper. (No salt).

Now I cut the meat into thin slices. The meat I used was two palm-size pieces of topside steak. It's cheaper than most meat, but it's also the one we are supposed to eat, so it works out well. I should have browned the meat in the pan first, but I didn't plan ahead, so I got out my trusty non-stick frying pan and browned it in there. You don't want to cook it completely through, otherwise when you add it to the other ingredients and finish the cooking process, it will keep cooking and become chewy and gross. So when that was browned (or as my friend says "No longer bleeding") I added that to the onions/garlic pot.

I then ... improvised. *evil laugh*

I added a can of 99% fat free evaporated milk, 1 tablespoon of gravy powder, 1 tablespoon of plain flour and a generous squirt of BBQ sauce. I also raided the freezer and found half a 500g packet of frozen vegetables (carrot, sweet pea and broccoli) and added that in. Frozen veges are my fool-proof way to make a good meal. I believe frozen is better than fresh (especially since "fresh" at my shopping centre doesn't necessarily mean "fresh" or "okay to eat"). I figure it's frozen at the best time, and it's all edible. None of this buying a capsicum (or pepper) and having to cut 1/2 of it away! Anyway, I stirred it all together, turned the heat down and put a lid on it, and left it to thicken. About 5 minutes later, the rice was done so it was time to serve it up.

And whola, there you have it, beef stroganoff with rice. It actually tasted quite good. I was happy with it anyway. And it smelt awesome. I think that was mostly the mixed herbs, but it still smelt good!


And Puddy was a great help, just flopping down on the kitchen floor, getting under my feet. I think she was waiting for bits to fall on the ground again. She's such a scavenger.