Beef Stroganoff

I’ve been lucky enough to consider myself a professional writer for a really long time–since my first year of college, I’ve consistently been employed by weekly and daily magazines or papers, worked for a brief stint writing press releases and bios for an entertainment company in Nashville, and always had my head in the academic world of publishing articles and attending conferences.

In a world where the printed word has a precarious future, I really do count my blessings: not only have I had the opportunity to write not one, but two books, but I’ve also received fabulous e-mails from you readers and certainly never saw a semicolon, comma, or punctuation mark that I didn’t like. 

But none of this could have prepared me for my third book, a dissertation on nineteenth-century British women’s food writings, the periodical press, and cookery culture.  

It’s a *delicious* topic–one that certainly warrants more scholarly attention–and has made me increasingly grateful to be employed out of the LSU English Department with the mentorship, time, and money to work on a monograph that I believe will one day mean something.

I’ve begun to think that I’m writing this book because, so far, it just doesn’t exist, and I’d really like to read it when it’s done.

Pictured: Just for fun, an advertisement for “Extracts of Beef” by Liebig Company.  This really is the Victorian version of “slow cooker” technology.  Beef Extracts were meant to make women’s lives easier when ingredients like beef weren’t readily available or one couldn’t afford to put real beef juice into a recipe.

All of this writing has meant several weeks away from Clearly Delicious eating heinously ill-conceived foods and ordering takeout from mid-city restaurants (in fact, I’m pretty sure all of the delivery guys from Reginelli’s now know me by name…I’m not proud of this).  Cooking has always given me a kind of peacefully creative outlet with big rewards, but I have had little time to cook as I research, write, and meet with people on the work.

What has come out of this process has been a visit with my old friend the slower cooker, someone I haven’t seen in quite a while.  It’s white, a bit banged up, but consistently useful and surprisingly durable (like this one).  Having less time during the day to chop, roast, and babysit dishes, I’ve started to incorporate time savers that can greet me when I arrive home.  This recipe for Beef Stroganoff was the first I pinned onto my “Crock-pot” board at Pinterest.  The warm dark sauce and egg noodles seemed the perfect end to a long day on campus, and I knew I had to make it.

For an easy dinner that uses few ingredients and can be whipped up fast, try this Beef Stroganoff from the Heather Bytes blog.  It’s decadent and delicious just like comfort food should be and can be made even better with a glass of red wine after a long day of writing.

Beef Stroganoff

This recipe is from the blog Heather Bytes and the original can be found here.  I’ve halved the amount of beef her version calls for (it just felt like too much meat for one person over the course of several days of leftovers) and doubled the amount of mushrooms.  Why? Well, I LOVE mushrooms.

 Ingredients:

*1 lb. cube steak or stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces

*2 (10.75-oz) cans condensed golden mushroom soup

*1 onion, chopped

*2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

*1 (14-oz.) can beef broth

*2 (8-oz.) packages mushrooms, whole or halved

*salt and pepper, to taste

To garnish:

*4-ounces cream cheese, room temperature

*sour cream, to garnish

1.)  Combine first seven ingredients in crock-pot, mix to combine, and cover.  Turn crock-pot to “Low” or “High” temperature based on desired cooking time.  For a full day at work, I suggest “Low” (food will be ready in 5-6 hours) or “High” when preparing dinner early (2-3 hours).  See “How Slow Cookers Work” for a little history and advice.

2.) Right before serving, stir in cream cheese, cover, and allow to cook for an additional 20-30 minutes.

3.) Stir sauce before serving to remove any excess white “bumps” from the cream cheese and pour over egg noodles or whole wheat pasta.  Garnish with sour cream as desired.

Makes 6-8 servings.

–Helana Brigman

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