Cheater Beef Stroganoff

My husband's birthday was on Tuesday and that means I have much, much leftover food in my fridge. I always overcook, and this time was no exception. Several pounds of salmon (salads! I love cold salmon on salads!), chicken (wraps!) and steak leads me to my favourite way to rid myself of leftovers. I also have some light sour cream that I will forget about otherwise and far too many mushrooms (is there really such a thing as too many mushroom?) so here we are: let's get at it!

 

You will need:

2 c uncooked egg noodles (I am using No Yolks)
2 tsp olive oil (don't use EVOO)
1 onion, grated
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced, about 2 cups (you can buy 1/2 lb tubs all sliced for you. I don't like them because they slice them too thick, but I really should learn to pick my battles)
1/2 c red wine
2 c beef stock
1 lb cooked steak
Salt, pepper, paprika (I am using smoked hot paprika because I love it so)

First, prep! Grate your onions and crush your garlic into a large-ish heavy-bottom (makes the cooking world go round) saucepan. Slice the steak as thinly as possible. Putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes first helps fo sho. Slice your mushrooms or pull the saran wrap off your package, whatever your wallet and conscience dictates.

Add the oil to the saucepan with onions and garlic, heat to medium and add in the mushrooms. Cook for three minutes or until the onions are softened and most of the liquid is gone.

Pour in the wine and use a flat wooden spoon to scrape up everything off the bottom. Cook until most of the liquid is gone. Start to boil water for the egg noodles, cook, drain and set aside.

Add in the beef stock, sliced steak, salt, pepper and paprika. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half.

Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Check your seasoning. Stir in the cooked egg noodles, serve!

You know, it would look much better with BROAD egg noodles, but here's what I had

I portioned this into 4 servings at 350 calories per; add a salad or steamed veggies and boom! Under 400 - 500! And now I can see into my fridge.

Enjoy!

Monday: Shrimp 'N' Noodles

I typically make this when I am running around all morning and get home and realise that I have nothing taken out for supper. Yay for shrimp thawing really quickly! You can either put them in the fridge for the day, or rinse them under cool water in a colander. Add some curry and egg noodles, and BAM! Dinner!

You will need:

6 ounces egg noodles ( I use No Yolks)

1 Tbsp butter

1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and de-veined

1 ½ tsp curry powder

¼ c dry white wine (or just use all chicken broth if you are serving kiddos)

¾ c low-sodium chicken broth

2 eggs

2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese 

3 Tbsp fresh mint

Salt, pepper

First, start cooking your egg noodles. Side note: if you bought peeled shrimp, good on ya, you lazy bugger. If you have to peel yours, reserve the shells. You can simmer them in a small pot with the chicken stock as a flavour enhancer. All you have to do is strain the stock before you use it in the sauce.

Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan and cook the shrimp, sprinkled with the curry powder (btw, I always use way more than 1 and a half teaspoons of curry) just until it is pink and cooked through, 2-3 minutes.

Add the wine (or chicken stock), bring to a boil and then add the broth. Drain your egg noodles and reserve.

Put the eggs and Parmesan cheese in a small bowl, gradually whisk in 1/2 c of the hot broth from the saucepan. When you are tempering (adding hot to cool then adding all back in), you want to go sloooowwwly. If you pour in too much of the hot too fast, you will end up with scrambled eggs, instead of a thickener for your sauce. 

Slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan, whisking the whole time. Faster, soldier! No scrambled eggs on our watch! Reduce the heat and add in the egg noodles, cook until the sauce has thickened and the noodles are warmed.

Sprinkle on the salt, pepper and chopped mint. I made 4 servings at 283 calories per. Add a salad or steamed vegetables, great supper under 500 calories, done!

Friday: Pork Stroganoff

I have a couple of recipes for pork tenderloin, but I like this one because I can incorporate vegetables easily and most of it is in one pot. Pork tenderloin also dries out very quickly, but the sauce and gentle cooking generally keeps 'er moist.

You will need:

1 lb pork tenderloin. Mid-range, don’t get too fussy on size

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 c chicken stock

4 ½ oz (125g) mushrooms, sliced, which is about half of one of those Styrofoam containers

1 large green pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg plus more for garnish

1/4 c low-fat plain yoghurt, not greek

4 oz egg noodles – I like “No Yolks” although I do generally really like yolks



The first thing you will want to do is take a look-see at your pork. Tenderloins tend to have something called silver-skin on it, that is indigestible and you are going to want to remove it:

That stuff rye chair

Get it off!! Get it off!!

Use a thin blade like a slicer or boning knife (mine is still dull so I am using a slicing knife), gently cut through the membrane on one end and pick it up. Pull the silver-skin up as you slide the blade along the tenderloin to remove as much as possible. It's not going to hurt you, but you don't want to eat more than you have to. Trim any fat you see:

Like that stuff, but don't get too fussy about it. Most will render

And then cut it into 1/2" thick slices, like coins. Really thick pink coins worth no money. Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan, add in the pork, onions some salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes until the pork is just starting to brown a little. Add in the crushed garlic and cook for one minute. Most of the time recipes will tell you to add the garlic and onion at the same time, I don't ever do that. Garlic burns very easily and anything more than a minute will result in no beuno. 

A minute after adding the garlic sprinkle on the flour and add the tomato paste. Stir until everything looks relatively evenly covered, then add in the chicken stock. Mix that very well and then add in the mushrooms, green pepper and the 1/4 tsp nutmeg. I don't think I've ever measured nutmeg, but you know, grate some if you are doing it fresh (always do it fresh) or give it a healthy pinch if you are using pre-grated (why?? sorry, no judgement). Add some salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to a boil, then turn down, cover and cook for 20 minutes. 

While you are letting that simmer, cook the egg noodles. After the 20 minutes, remove the cover and stir in the yoghurt. You can use Greek yoghurt if you want, I just find it doesn't integrate as well as non-Greek. Insert xenophobic comment here. Ba dum bum! 

Plate the egg noodles, place the pork on top with sauce and garnish with a little bit more nutmeg. Done! Enjoy!

Know what would be awesome here? A picture! Next time!

Tuesday: Saucy Beef Lo Mein

This is one of my favourite Chinese dishes, but I would guess that it is about as authentic as my French accent. As in, not very much. For one thing I've never been able to find lo mein noodles and I've substituted green beans instead of bean sprouts because it occurred to me that I have lots of one and none of the other. You guess which is which!!

You will need: