Beef Stroganoff

I had a mouthful of the most startlingly tasty beef stroganoff with egg noodles at, of all places, a meet-and-greet for a local chap running for office. I loved it so much that I looked up one of the family's old recipes for it, made a few substitution, and came up with this hearty, yummy recipe below.

Ingredients:
Beef--I use two commercial steaks, but if you can afford primo or choice, by all means, indulge yourself.
Beef broth, tinned.
White onions at the end of shallots (pNyeaajkolir pNyeaaj).
Red onions--chopped.
Garlic--crushed.
Salt, pepper.
Sugar
Vinegar (red wine).
White wine for cooking.
Sour cream.
Butter.
Flour for thickening (not strictly necessary).

Cut gristly and fat away from the beef. Cut the remaining into chunks or slices, depending upon preference. Marinate them overnight or for a couple of hours at least in red wine vingegar, or just regular vinegar. Or lime juice and a touch of salt, in the absence of vinegar.


Heat butter in a frying pan or skillet. Spread it around. Add the pieces of beef, retaining the vinegar or lime juice in the marinating bowl (the meat will release juices of it's own). Wait till the meat is nicely browned--don't start cooking further at the red stage--and add the red and white onions, and the crushed garlic. Let fry for a three or four minutes. Toss the meat to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan/skillet and char. Add a little white wine to deglaze the pan, but this is optional.






Add the vinegar/lime juice and beef broth and stir them in well, scraping up drippings from the pan. Add four cups of water--the broth will reduce in the time the meat needs cooking for--salt, pepper, a dash of sugar (that's right, sugar). I also added some powdered cayenne pepper for a bit of heat, and some powdered dill and parseley, because you can't go wrong with dill and parsely :-)

Give it all a good stir and cover. Let cook on the lowest possible flame. Let simmer for about an hour (check back after forty minutes).





Check if the meat is tender. If not, give it time till it is--add more water to keep the broth going. On the other hand, if the meat's done but the broth's too thin, stir in a tablespoon of flour to thicken it (I had to), and whisk well so it isn't lumpy. When meat and broth are both as you like it, stir in two large tablespoons of sour cream. Pour over boiled and drained egg noodles. Dinner is ready :-)