The Family Stroganoff

When we first got married, my wife cooked Beef Stroganoff for me one night. I came home late (I worked second shift then) and didn't even eat any. She was kind of insulted and rightly so - she still reminds me of that night almost 20 years later...
She used a recipe from the label of a jar of Heinz Homestyle Gravy and saved the label so she could make it again. When I finally tasted her Stroganoff, I was glad she saved that label, it was quite tasty! Over the next nearly 2 decades, we've made this dish many times, and have added our own little twists to it, adding fresh mushrooms, more red wine, a touch of sherry...We even went through our "low-fat" period with this recipe, modifying it to fot that crazy diet fad, and it still turned out pretty good.
This recipe has real history for me, too. It was the first dish my wife cooked for me (even though I didn't eat it that night) and it's one of our favorites still, even my for my son. Of course he'll eat almost anything with noodles!

The Sing Family Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless sirlon or round steak, sliced into thin strips

2 Tablespoons butter
1 large onion (about 1 cup), coarsly chopped

8 ounces fresh mushrooms,sliced (I like them that way) or diced
12 ounce jar of mushroom or brown gravy (we always use Heinz Homestyle gravy, either Mushroom, Savory, or something like that)
1/4 cup (or a bit more) dry red wine
a few table spoons of sherry (use decent sherry, not that nasty cooking sherry)
1 to 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
about 1/3 cup real dairy sour cream
Hot cooked wide egg noodles
Salt
Pepper
Chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
In a large skillet, brown the slice steak in the butter.
Add the onions and cook 'til limp.

Stir in the mushrooms.
Stir in the gravy, wime and tomato paste.
Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand for about 10 minutes.

Stir in the sherry.
Stir in the sour cream until smooth and a nice tan color - I always check with my wife to confirm that I've addd enough sour cream. She know what color the sauce should be (I've included the picture below for your reference).

Serve over hot noodles (buttered if you like), and sprinkled with parsley.

The picture below is the original recipe from that first jar of gravy. It's prett special to us and I'm glad to show it off here. Click the image to see a larger view (It's more readable).


Enjoy,
Lorence