Beef Stroganoff

Tati and I took off and went to Things Made Wonderful today (my absolute favorite store). It was good to get away from the house. The ride up there is beautiful and Tati and I laughed and talked the whole way there. I needed that. They had an outdoor garden party so there were some little booths set up outside. It was nice. I picked up a few things, 2 really cute wooden daises for the yard and a new table runner for the kitchen. I was in much better spirits by the time I left the store.

I made Beef Stroganoff last night for supper from a recipe at Simply Recipes.com. What can I say, the girl can do no wrong. It was really tasty. John will be bringing the leftovers for work tomorrow. He starts his new job! Yeah!

Beef Stroganoff

6 Tablespoons butter
1 pound top sirloin or tenderloin, cut into 1 inch wide by 2 1 /2 inch long strips
1/3 cup chopped shallots
½ pound portabella mushrooms
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon dry tarragon
1 cup sour cream, room temp

Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Increase the heat to high/med-high and add the strips of beef. You want to cook the beef quickly, browning on each side, so the temp needs to be high enough to brown the beef, but not so high as to burn the butter. You may need to work in batches. While cooking the beef, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. When both sides are browned, remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute or two, allowing them to soak up any meat drippings. Remove the shallots to the same bowl as the meat and set aside.

In the same pan, melt another 3 Tbsp of butter. Increase heat to medium high and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes. While cooking, sprinkle the nutmeg and the tarragon on the mushrooms.

Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream to the mushrooms. You may want to add a tablespoon or two of water to thin the sauce (or not). Mix in the sour cream thoroughly. Do not let it come to a simmer or boil or the sour cream will curdle. Stir in the beef and shallots. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately over egg noodles, fettuccine, potatoes, or rice. Serves 4.

I served this over these really cool noodles that I found called Mafalde. The look like little mini lasagna and worked really well with this recipe.