Beef Stroganoff

This was one of my all time favourite meals as a kid. I could smell it cooking from the local park and remember rubbing my fingers around the pan to get all the crusty bits off when dinner was all finished (I was one of those kids who ate and ate yet looked like a bean pole....until I hit my teens that is!).
I haven't made beef stroganoff in years, weird really, since I use to love it so much?

I'd been thinking of it this past week and decided to make some soon. As it happens, soon was tonight and surprise, surprise I was short of the most important ingredients- mushrooms and sour cream.
 I often wonder what goes through my head when I go shopping, I mean how can I forget the two main ingredients???......then I remembered, I didn't actually do the shopping this week. Nic and I swapped household duties; he shopped while I cleaned the house, so it all made sense why we didn't have the ingredients- I didn't actually tell him ( I know....how does he live with me, right?).

While I popped on the rice, Nic kindly left for the shops.
 I was telling the boys how I loved this dish when I was a kid and they just looked at me blankly and nodded. Alex couldn't quite believe how anyone could love a dish with mushrooms in it and then declared he couldn't possibly eat them and to please leave it out of his dinner. Like that was going to happen, I continued on and thought I'd hedge my bets that he would love it.

Before I started making dinner I hopped onto the Internet to double check my memory for beef stroganoff. The first recipe I came across sounded more foreign to me than a mushroom passing Alex's lips on purpose!

I don't know about you, but when I have a flavour in mind I HATE getting it wrong. I wasn't going to take any chances and did the next best thing, I called my sister. She was still at work and was quite surprised when I rang asking her for a recipe.
Tarsh was the best person to call because she is so diligent and remembers everything! I knew she had made beef stroganoff recently and I also knew she would only make it the way we use to eat it as kids. She probably wrote down the recipe when she was ten and still uses the original today....I'm talking about a girl who once contacted mintie wrappers (lollie wrappers) because she just couldn't throw them away for god sake!

 I was right, Tarsh rattled off the ingredients to which I was short beef stock. No worries, I am sure mum use to make it with water some days?

My end result was pretty yummy. It still had the richness I remembered when mum made it; the creamy sour cream teamed with fresh parsley finished it off perfectly and I was pretty darn happy.
Alex told me he thought the sauce was very yummy but why did I have to ruin it with all the mushrooms?  Max managed to polish it all off and declared it would be fine if I made it again (thank the stars I got approval!).

 Beef Stroganoff
1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
500grams beef strips , like sirloin
1 brown onion, diced (original recipe used green onions)
500grams mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper to  taste
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tin whole tomatoes (drained and diced)
1 tin water (or original recipe beef stock)
approx 1/3 cup sour cream
chopped parsley to serve

I used an electric frying pan just to make it all the more like my child hood but a large frying pan is fine.
Heat pan until very hot.
Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper then add oil and beef to pan and sear on both sides until browned.
Remove meat from frying pan and leave to rest.
Add mushrooms and onions to frying pan, then saute for 3-4 minutes.
Add tomato paste and garlic, stirring to combine and cook for 4 minutes.
Add water or stock, bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes with a lid on.
Add meat, simmer for another 5 minutes then turn off heat and add sour cream.
Serve on rice with a handful of fresh parsley