Special Request Beef Stroganoff

This is based on a Cooking Light recipe; I made a few changes based on convenience and pure absentmindedness.

As you may notice, I tend not to measure many ingredients when I cook. I prefer eyeballing over cleaning multiple measuring cups and spoons. Now, that may have contributed to my mistake, but I also think that a sleepy head may have been partially accountable as well.

Let's see. I began this recipe by gathering my ingredients (rather, my lovely bearded assistant helped me with this task while I prepped the beef). On a crowded counter, my parsley and dill sat, ready and waiting. Now let me say, they are in similar sized containers, and to a busy cook, they look rather alike. I hastily grabbed one bottle, eyeballed about 2 tablespoons of what I thought was parsely, grabbed the second bottle, looked at the label, and realized that was parsley. I had just poured more than 3 times the recipe-directed dill amount. The horror! The original recipe called for a measly 1/2 teaspoon of this herb, significantly less than the approximated 2 tablespoons I had just added.

Of course I had already placed my onion, beef, and mustard into my crock pot, so there was almost no way I could dump it out and start from scratch. I tried to pull out as much as I could, shrugged my sholders and moved on to "measuring" the parsely. I estimate that about 1 tablespoon or more of dill was left in the pot, and I do have to say, my mistake undoubtedly contributed to the making of one tasty meal. Seriously.

Jay had been begging me for months to cook beef stroganoff. For some reason I had never jumped on this request like I have (almost) all others. Ribs? Sure. Meatloaf (again)? Fine. But for me, beef stroganoff has never been one of those dishes I dreamily salivate over. This week, Jay asked me (yet again) if I would make it, and upon looking up a recipe and realizing how effortless stroganoff is to make (I mean, seriously... you throw some stuff in the crock pot and waam-oh, you have yourself a meal), I decided that I could suck it up and try my hand at the dish. I mean, maybe I would like it more than I remember, right?

And did I. Jay took pictures of me liking the spatula. I kid you not. This is one flavorful dish that I will dream about... I just hope I don't drool too much on the pillow.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup stroganoff and 1/2 cup noodles)

The Stuff:

• sharp knife for trimming your steak
  
• crock pot

The Edibles:

• about 1 pound top round steak, 1/2 to 1 inch thick, trimmed of fat etc.
  
• 1 c. chopped onion
  
• 2 T. dried parsley (fresh works too, obviously)
  
• 2 T. Dijon mustard
  
• 3/4 tsp. salt
  
• 1 T. dried dill
  
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  
• about 2 c. sliced mushrooms (I used baby potabellas)
  
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or the equivalent in jarred or powdered)
  
• 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
  
• 1 c. reduced sodium beef broth
  
• 1 8 oz. container low-fat sour cream
  
• 2 c. hot cooked medium egg noodles

The Making:

1. Cut steak diagonally across grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place steak and next 8 ingredients (though garlic) in slow cooker; stir well.
   
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a small bowl; gradually add broth, stirring with a whisk until blended. Add broth mixture to slow cooker, and stir well. Cover with lid, and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
   
3. Remove the lid and let the stroganoff stand for 10 minutes to allow it to cool down a bit. Stir in the sour cream. Serve your creamy, mushroomy beef over the noodles and savor each bite!

Estimated Nutritional Information (per serving):
Calories: 400
Fat: 10g
Protein: 36g
Carbohydrate: 43g
Fiber: 3g
Cholesterol: 110mg
Iron: 5.5mg
Sodium: 946mg
Calcium: 123mg

Bulgogi a la Momo (Marinated Flank Steak)

I can't help but get a little emotional every time I smell the marinade of this steak. This is one of those meals that evokes a rainbow of emotions within me; I feel a sense of loss for the fact that I no longer live at home, under the protection of my mama bird's wing, while I also feel a bit of joy, knowing that she's here with me, as I cook (and only a phone call away). My pride swells knowing that I can make this meal (almost) as well as she can (because let's be honest, moms are always better than us at cooking, right?), but I almost always feel a bit of remorse, like I'm an imposter standing in for my Mom because she's the one who should be creating this masterpeice. It's likely I'm being overanalytical, and hyper-sensitized by a simple steak, but smells have a way of connecting with memories that make them quite powerful.

I've been trying to limit (while allow) red meat in my diet. I try to have it once a week because I know it is a good (if not great) source of protein, iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, but for health reasons I'd rather obtain these vital dietary neccessities through alternate food sources such as soy beans, spinach, bran, and nuts. Nevertheless, variety is the spice of life, and sometimes I crave a good olfactory trip down memory lane, if not to be closer to my mom.

Even though it's ridiculously easy to make, you can easily fool anyone you're cooking for that you really slaved in the kitchen pulling this one together--it's that good. I've found that referring to it as "Korean Barbeque Steak," as it is sometimes called, causes less upper-lip-raising (as in, "WHAT are you going to be serving??!?!"). Nevertheless, sometime the adverse reactions are funny and "Bowl-gog-E" is fun to say!

And for those vegetarians out there, it's likely that the marinade would make for a yummy tofu, tempeh, or seitan "steak"!

I like to serve this with my quinoa pilaf and fresh asparagus grilled (or broiled). I'll cover the asparagus in a mixture of: 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon miran (sweet rice vinegar), 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce, 1 clove garlic (or garlic salt), and a sprinkle of ginger.

Yields 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces)

The Edibles:

• 1 pound top sirloin steak, trimmed
• 2 T. brown sugar
• 6 T. low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 T. mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 2 tsp. minced peeled fresh ginger (I always used powdered ginger and it always turns out magnificently)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced (I've used fresh, dried, jarred, or powdered... all will work)
• 3 fresh scallions, whites and green cut into about 1/4 inch slices (I've actually used dried chives when I realized I had totally blanked on picking up scallions at the store... even though they're technically not the same, it still turned out delicious!)

The Making:

1. Combine sugar (or sugar substitute), and next 6 ingredients (sugar through scallions) in a large zip-top plastic bag. Seal and shake up until well mixed. Drop in the steak (gently, now) and marinate in refrigerator for at least an hour, turning bag occasionally. I've found that longer marinatation times yield exponentially better, more flavorful steaks. So if you can, plan ahead. Easier said than done, right?
2. Once your steak has marinated to its (and your) heart's desire, prepare your grill (a.k.a. turn on that bad boy), or preheat broiler.
3. Carefully remove beef from bag, reserving the marinade. Place beef on hot grill or under a preheated broiler. Your cooking time will depend on the steak's thickness, so keep a careful eye on your beef. For a steak that was about 1/2 inch thick that I placed under the broiler (no need to flip it), I cooked it about 8 minutes. I think these are best cooked to medium or medium-well, and that timing made them perfect! If grilling, cook the steaks for about 4 minutes per side, again until desired level of doneness.
4. While the steak cooks, pour the marinade into a small saucepan and cook over medium to medium high heat, until it comes to a rolling, slow boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low. I usually boil it for about 5 minutes to make sure anything and everything that isn't supposed to be in your food is killed off. :-)

Estimated Nutritional Information:

Calories: 208 (33% from fat)

Fat: 7.6g (sat 2.7g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.7g)

Protein: 26.1g

Carbohydrate: 6.4g

Fiber: 0.2g

Cholesterol: 76mg

Iron: 3.1mg

Sodium: 457mg

Calcium: 19mg