Stroganoff

I have made many versions of Stroganoff and they all seem to be crowd pleasers. If making this with chicken then use  chicken stock and reduce the cooking time by half. There are many variations of this recipe throughout the world including some where the meat is sausage. The 15th century Russian Stroganov family became successful merchants and where engaged in farming, hunting, saltworks, fishing, and mining

The Japanese version of this dish includes non-traditional seasonings including soy sauce and invariable it is served over jasmine rice.

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons sweet butter

1 Pound rump roast or chuck roast or sirloin sliced thin or use chicken thigh meat

½ Cup Marasala wine or Madeira wine or cream sherry

1 Cup strong beef stock or chicken stock

1 Tablespoon of demi-glace (optional, veal when cooking beef or vegetable or chicken demi-glace for chicken Stroganoff)

All purpose flour

Pinch of ground sage⁵

1 Small clove of minced garlic

Pinch of thyme

1 Cups of sour cream (or Naturally Yours¹ non-fat Sour Cream)

1 Pound of cremini (brown) mushrooms², sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

16 Ounces wide egg noodle. cooked al dente

Pound both sides of thin slices of roast with a mallet to tenderize the beef. Alternatively, used sliced chicken thigh meat. Flour well then slice into 1-inch strips. The meat is thin so it cooks quicly and remains tender. (You may choose to add salt and pepper to the flour before hand as a seasoned flour. Keep in mind, if the stock has salt in it and it reduces tremendously, the salt level become more concentrated so I always correct the seasoning last.)

Heat pan to 350 F and then add oil and butter. (Excessive oil can be drained off later.) Add slices of beef in one layer. Brown the meat strips on each side and remove, set aside and proceed until all strips are browned. Scrape out and retain extra brown bits from the bottom of the pan if these are in risk of turning excessively brown. Once all the meat is browned and removed from pan, then drain off excessive oil, reserving all the browned bits in bottom of pan. Add wine and, with wooden spoon, loosen bits on the bottom of the pan. Add back the meat then add stock to meat. Add garlic, spices and demi-glace.

Place a pot of lightly salted water with a cover to boil.

Cover the stroganoff partially and simmer until meat is tender, approximately ½ Hour. Check while cooking that liquid level has not reduced too much. Add additional stock as required. Scrap the bottom with a turner a few times to insure nothing is sticking.

Cook the egg noodles in boiling salted water until al dente.

Add sliced mushrooms and cook stroganoff now completely covered with a tight lid another 10 minutes.⁴ When the mushrooms are done, turn heat to low while stirring in the sour cream. Remove pan from heat but leave on lid to retain heat.

Drain the egg noodles in a colander.

Add some of the sauce from the pan to the noodles and stir it in. Then serve Stroganoff over egg noodles. Garnish with finely chopped parsley, or finely chopped chives or a sprig of thyme.

Notes:

 1.  The Morningstar Group is the producer of Naturally Yours fat-free sour cream. Naturally Yours contains 67% less calories than full fat sour cream while delivering similar taste and texture characteristics. It is the only reduced fat sour cream that still delivers a reasonable mouthful.

2.   Dried sliced mushrooms work here but go in sooner and require a touch more liquid. The affordable sliced dried shiitake mushrooms found in Asian markets work well, also add a few dried porcini mushrooms for more flavor. Cooking fresh mushrooms separately in butter gives a better result – see note 4.

3.   Mom’s recipe sautés onions, has 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 3 tablespoons brandy and 1 tablespoon tomato paste. She also uses top sirloin for the meat. Kae suggests serving over rice (as in UK and Australia) instead of noodles. In the 1938 Larousse Gastronomique (an encyclopedia of gastronomy), the recipe includes onions, with either mustard or tomato paste optional.

4.   You can also saute fresh mushrooms in butter over high heat, then add them last.

5. Adding rosemary to the recipe will give this dish an Italian taste.

Arabica Coffee – Where is the “Good Stuff?”

Arabia & Africa.

Highly distinct coffees that include coffees from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimba­bwe and Ethiopia. Grown at the perfect altitude in rich black soil and the almost foggy evenings with hot days produce a coffee of legendary stature.

The Americas:

These coffees are grown in an almost perfect atmosphere bearing highly aromatic and well-bal­anced coffees. coffees of the America’s includes coffees from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil (grows roughly a third of the world's coffee), Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panama and Guate­mala.

The Pacific:

 Great coffees are grown in the pacific. These include coffees from Sumatra, Java, Indonesia, Viet­nam, and Kona Island in Hawaii, Papua New Guinea and Sulawesi.

Most people prefer the flavor of Arabica coffee best, which includes me. While I live modestly, my wife and I treasure a fine cup of coffee. Truthfully, one does not always get good value buying coffee willy-nilly. Most supermarkets do not carry the best coffee values. It is great to buy from a coffee specialty store where you can taste a brewed sample. Additionally, you can get recommendations from a friend. Online stores need to be reputable less you land on a site that buys and resells stale coffee. A good cup of coffee can never come from stale coffee. Whole bean is the best choice. If buying a pig in a poke, buy one pound to test, less you end up with a cupboard full of lousy coffee beans.

For thirty-five years, we buy Peerless Anniversary Blend, which is described on the Peerless website as: “In honor of Peerless Coffee & Tea's 80th Anniversary, George Vukasin, Jr developed the 80th Anniversary Blend. A unique organic coffee combining Arabica beans from four award-winning estates, all Italian roasted for a rich, velvety, smooth flavor.” see www.peerlesscoffee.com This company is rated number 1 in the Bay Area and, for my money, is a real bargain.

Making Great Coffee at Home


Great coffee deserves to be made with good water. Most drip makers include a carbon filtration system in the water path. Use great water - its a must.

A drip coffee maker is good and finely grinding freshly roasted beans certainly helps keep flavors intact. A pinch of salt to the grindings often improves the flavor of coffee. A fine mesh insert is more affordable than buying paper filters and works a little faster as well.

French press coffee maker works exceptionally well for world best coffees and can make a good and strong cup of coffee from even not the greatest of coffee. The press pot was invented by the French in 1850 hence its name. The French press lends itself nicely to a ritualistic preparation at the dining table. Great coffee deserves a bit of fanfare but since very hot water is involved, do not have any fumble fingered guest attempt the process. The anticipation and the aromas that come forth heightens the experience for me. It is sort of reminiscent of the older days of the Maître d' and the times when service in a palace of fine dining was at its zenith and the staff would dote on their patrons ---- sigh.

A French press consists of a narrow cylindrical beaker usually made of glass. It has a lid and a tight fitting plunger having a fine wire mesh acting as a filter. Coffee is brewed by placing the coffee in the beaker, replacing the plunger, and pouring in near boiling hot water, leaving to brew for a four minutes, then gently depressing the plunger, trapping the coffee grounds on the bottom. Rich coffee is poured off the top.

A French press is relatively cheap when compared to an espresso machine. Grinding the coffee finely helps with high extraction and hastens the process for those who might otherwise be a bit impatient. Thicker grind will mean less sediment. The manufacture Boden and Mr Coffee makes many French presses which are simple and affordable. Very many fine establishments that serve premium coffee often serve it from a French press.

The finer the grind, the more extraction, and the more solids end up in the coffee. Finely ground coffee requires a fine filter. The proportion of coffee to water depends on how strong you like your coffee. To start with try 2 tablespoons of coffee to 6 ounces of water and adjust according to how it tastes.

Browning Food Enhances Food Flavors

No matter if you are a chef, baker, coffee roaster, malting beer, toasting chocolate, browning imparts an incomparable flavor to food. “Maillard reaction” (may-yar) named after French chemist Louis Camille Maillard who was focused on protein synthesis in 1910. The Maillard reaction results from a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually with heat. In the process, hundreds of different flavor components are formed. Some of these further break down forming additional flavor compounds. Each type of food has a very distinctive set of flavor compounds that are formed during the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction happens noticeably around 309 °F.  Significant browning of food does not occur until all surface water is vaporized. If you are roasting at a lower temperature, these complex flavors do not develop as the Maillard reaction does not occur.

In many recipes, a roast may start at 400 F + initially which is held for 10~15 minutes then the heat reduced to the eventually roasting temperature to finish. Hence, a roast with a lot of connective tissue is cooked long enough to break down and become tender but the most flavors are still achieved.

Caramelization is an entirely different process from Maillard browning, although the two processes are sometimes similar in taste. Caramelisation is the browning of sugar or foods high in sugar, and can be thought of as a thermo chemical decomposition and does not involve amino acids. Caramelization is occurring in the sugar of your barbeque sauce on the grill. If excessively heated, carbon ultimately forms. Are we there yet? Heat and time may also transform the food from a collection of complex molecules to simple carbon reside and water vapour, which is not the objective, and even my dog, Macho who is a consummate epicurean (he eats everything) would turn up his nose at the ash residue. Therefore, if you are alone minding the store, you cannot go out back for a constitutional and newspaper read. If the thin crust pizza is perfect at 5 minutes, what is it a 6 ½ minutes?

Browning the meat and the vegetables can be a good way to enhance hearty stews, stock and soup. Add meat and cut vegetables to a shallow toasting pan and roast of high, turning pieces with thongs until meat is well browned. Maillard browning occurs in the meat and caramelization in the carrots.

In Asian cuisine, the use of very high heat under the wok can achieve Maillard browning not only in meat but also to the rice or wheat noodles if they are added without a liquid and tossed. This imparts a meaty character to the noodles. In my cookbook, Beef Chow Fun is cooked in this “dry style” to get this effect.