Greetings folks!

Glad you could make it for another edition of Sunday Gravy.

Today’s meal most definitely falls under the “gravy” heading perfectly.

As one of the resident “old guys” I was brought up in the era of pants suits and leatherette settees. Bowling alleys and pot lucks. Bouffant hair-dos with Aquanet. You get the idea. Dear old Ma was quite gifted in the dinner-time preparation of all the old classics. Meatloaf,  chicken ala king, beef bourginon, Swedish meatballs and the like. It’s pretty damn obvious where I got some of my inspiration.

I played little league baseball from the time I was 8 all the way into high school. I was also a junior bowler during the same ages and the family was very community involved. This meant we did a lot of damn pot luck dinners. A lot. Every time we would wrap up a season of baseball or bowling we would have a bigass pot luck dinner where everyone brought a dish. Do you know how many times I had to eat Jello salad or ambrosia?

I’m not gonna lie, I actually kind of like this shit. With the mandarin orange and the coconut? Oh my.

A whole shitload of my Ma’s recipe ideas were inspired by other folks dishes that were brought to the potlucks. I know she stole the idea of her “tater tot casserole” from another mom. Turns out it’s known as a “hot dish” and is very popular in Minnesota.

Do I make a kickass version of this dish myself?

You bet your fucking ass I do. Brown a pound of ground beef, mix with a can of cream of mushroom soup, pour in a baking dish, cover with a layer of Monterrey jack cheese, layer on the tater tots and bake in a 375 oven for about 40 minutes. Sweet Sonny Jesus is it fucking tasty.

I’ve got to lay some real personal knowledge on you at this time. Since this is my third season of Sunday Gravy, I kind of forget if I’ve mentioned some of these dishes before but like an old fogey who keeps telling you the same stories over and over, “Tough shit, Sonny!” I’m telling it again.

If you’ve been a long time reader, well first of all thank you, then you know I’ve got the “throw back gene” in a lot of my cooking. I swear to you folks that it’s been writing these Sunday Gravy posts that have allowed me to branch out and try new recipes and they have greatly expanded both my cooking knowledge and my cooking skills. When I mentioned these recipes to Youngest Right she said “Dad, your cooking skills are getting elevated as fuck!” I love that kiddo.

See? If not for you good folks I would still be making the same 25 recipes over and over.

It’s a mutually beneficial type deal here!

So let’s discuss this menu today.

Beef stroganoff, or бефстроганов befstróganov is obviously a dish of Russian origin. It’s first known documentation came in the 1800’s in a classic Russian cookbook called “A Gift to Young Housewives.” It detailed a recipe of lightly floured cubes of beef that are sauteed and prepared in a sauce of beef stock, or boullion and some prepared mustard that is finished with a dollop of sour cream at the end. At the time there were no onions, mushrooms, garlic or any other like items. Those were added after the dish made it’s way to America in the 1950’s. Once we got our hands on this tasty motherfucker we added those in, along with a splash of white wine and began serving it over rice or pasta.

The one with the variations is the one we will be fucking around with today. Because if you know me this bastard is going to have some onion and garlic in it.

Bullee Dat!

Let’s get after this damn thing.

Beef Stroganoff with fresh pasta!

Did I make my own pasta for this?

What do you think? I won’t be walking you through the entire “knead, rest, roll, cut and cook” process of the pasta since it’s right there in that link.

Stroganoff:

2 pounds of chuck roast cut into cubes with the fat and gristle removed.

1/2 stick of butter

1 tablespoon of oil

4 tablespoons of flour

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of paprika

A couple of leaves of fresh tarragon chopped

Some grinds of black pepper

1 medium onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon of mustard – I used spicy brown mustard

10 or so mushrooms sliced

1 and 1/2 cups of beef stock

1/3 cup of white wine

1/3 cup of sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parsley to garnish

Go ahead and clean up that slab of chuck roast first.

You know me and you know that I love working with a big slab of cow for these types of dishes. We’ve gone through the whole roast versus stew meat thing before. I used this method for Texas chili, beef and mushroom pie and several others. Once again it’s for consistent cooking. Same slab of flesh, same cooking consistency. And if Joe Morgan taught us nothing it’s “Being consistently consistent leads to consistent results!”

Oh yeah, don’t remove all of the fat, just remove enough to lower your guilt level a little.

Put that flour into a plastic bag, add in the chunks-o-cow and give it a shake. Using our now world famous Dutch oven, add in the oil and the butter over a medium heat. When the pot is hot, brown that meat! Season with some salt and pepper and the paprika. You’re going to want to work in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.

Cook for about 4 minutes per side until the meat is browned. Remove the meat from the pot and repeat until all of the meat has been browned. Did you just eat a chunk of that nice medium rare beef? Good on ya, mate! So did I! Next add the onions to the pot and cook until just translucent. About 7 minutes. Toss in the garlic and saute just until fragrant, maybe 30 seconds or so. If you need to add a little splash of oil after browning the meat to cook the onions and garlic in go right ahead and make it fucking so.

Next add in the beef stock to deglaze the pan, and as per usual, use a wooden spoon to scrape up those tasty browned bits of meat. Reduce the heat to low, add in the mustard, cover the pot and get this thing on a low simmer for about 75-90 minutes stirring occasionally.

The meat should be getting as tender as a baby harp seal at this point. Just joking, don’t eat harp seal. It’s fucking nasty.

After last week’s “rattlesnake story” you fuckers probably think I really did eat a baby harp seal didn’t you?

Maybe I did!

During the simmering step is when you can make your noodles. Hell, if you want to use store bought noodles or even rice to serve this over knock yourself the fuck out. I ain’t gonna get mad atcha. It’s just lately, my noodle and dough skills have been wicked strong and I felt like torturing myself by making them from scratch. I didn’t use the pasta cutter this time, just the pasta roller. I prefer a little wider noodle for this dish so I hand cut the rolled pasta.

Get a pot of water boiling to cook the pasta in. remember, fresh pasta only needs about 3-4 minutes on the boil. Drain the noodles in a colander.

About 10 minutes left in this bad boy. Now we’re going to add in the mushrooms, sour cream, tarragon and white wine and incorporate them with the meat gravy.

I made a rookie mistake and just added the sauce on top of the cooked noodles.

Still delicious but I forgot pasta rule #1, get a second pan and toss the pasta with some of the sauce to coat. Fucking dumbass.

Ladle some of the meat chunks and mushrooms on top of the coated noodles, sprinkle on the fresh parsley and finish with a few grinds of some black pepper.

There you go!

I served this with a spinach salad and some toasty garlic bread and the rest of that bottle of white wine.

My dear Ma used to use thin slices of top sirloin for her stroganoff and it was damn delicious but you know me. I like the bigger chunks of cow in mine.

This dish is fairly delicate, savory as all get out. You get the richness of the sauce, the onion and garlic bite comes through. Taste that? That’s that little bit of mustard and tarragon we put in there. There’s that slight tang and acidity of the white wine and sour cream and the earthiness of the mushrooms. Not to mention you have a nice toothsome bite of homemade pasta.

This shit is just plain damn tasty is all. Not to mention an easy meal to make if you’re not a goddamn maniac like me with the whole homemade noodle thing. Ma was a working person and she could put this together on a weeknight with ease.

Da! There we go comrades and fellow members of glorious Commentist Party! A feast to please even our cranky Uncle Joe Stalin. Maybe have tasty Moscow Mules along with tasty food menu next time.

Thanks again for reading.

Be nice to each other and see you next time!

Damn, The Beatles estate is tough on their sharing.