Beef Stroganoff

Dear Readers, I know there are some of you out there that probably think that I have been starving the poor "Darlings" again this week - but let me just set you straight - that is not the case!!


How does that old saying go - "when life gives you lemons - make lemonade!"  Well , while I have not exactly been making lemonade - I have been having to adjust things accordingly.  You see once again my oven door has broken (or what is the correct term - it needs to be "rebound") - I really don't care what it is called - I am severely unimpressed that 6 weeks after being repaired I am back exactly where I was!  I will not go into details - "I could be sued for expressing my opinions on this!!!"


So....... I have modified meals - they have been fed - they have have had Sang Choy Bow, they have had cheeseburgers, and they have had an old favourite - my easy Beef Stronganoff!!


So in the interests of still posting, I  will share with you my easy peasy Beef Stroganoff - one that  you can almost always pull out of the hat at the last minute!!

Beef Stroganoff


Serves 5 +

1 onion, finely diced
2 tbs olive oil
300g mushrooms, thinly sliced
1kg rump steak, thinly sliced *
420g can cream of mushroom soup
1 tsp paprika
2 tbs tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 tbs worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup sour cream

Heat a small amount of the olive oil in a large frypan over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, and cook, stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.  Remove from the heat.

Reheat the frypan with a small amount of olive oil over medium high heat - add half of the beef, and quickly brown, stirring frequently.  It is ok for the beef to be still slightly pink - it will cook the rest of the way when incorporated with the sauce.  Remove from heat, and repeat with remaining beef, again removing the beef from the pan.

Add the mushrooms to the pan, and cook stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until the mushrooms have softened.

Add back the onions and garlic, beef, paprika, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, and mushroom soup, mix well.  Cook for approximately 3-5 minutes, or until the beef has heated through.  Stir through the sour cream, and heat gently.

Serve over rice or pasta, and with steamed green vegetables.

* Having the steak partially frozen really helps, as you can cut it very thinly!!

So Dear Readers, do you ever have days (weeks) when things do not go according to plan??  Weeks when your best laid out menu plans do not eventuate?

So please do not worry - they are not starving of malnutrition - just not eating anything of blogworthiness!!!

Party Food

This weekend was the big 21st!!!  Precious turned 21 and the party was this weekend!!  I tell you, and I know that I am going to sound old when I say this, but 21st birthday parties are not what they used to be!!!  We won't go any further and embellish about what they are now - but let's just say - tread very carefully when it is time for you to approach this event!!!

As all good mothers do, when there is an event - they make food - and make food I did!!!  I will share with you a couple of the things that I made for the party because they are so easy, and with the silly season fast approaching they make great finger food to carry along to any event!!

The first dish was one that I have not pulled out of the old recipe archives for a very long time - and after eating it I had to ask myself why??

Now I made 4 kg each of these - I will give you the quantities for the 4kg - you do the math!!

Marinated Chipolata Sausages

4kg chipolata sausages
375ml Plum Sauce (I used SPC)
1/2 cup Shao Hsing wine
4tbs light soy sauce
1/4 cup hoi sin sauce
4 tsp sesame oil
5cm piece ginger, finely diced
6 cloves crushed garlic
1 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (to taste)

Combine the marinade in a large ziploc bag, add the chipolatas, refrigerate several hours, or overnight.

Drain the chipolatas, reserve the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Place the chipolatas in a large roasting dish (disposable is best!!).  Bake in the oven for approximately
1 1/2 - 2 hours - making sure that you turn them regularly.

Now to accompany the chipolatas you need a little sauce, so place the reserved marinade in a saucepan, bring it to the boil over a medium heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.   Allow to cool.

Once the sausages are cooked, remove the chipolatas from the pan and place in another disposable foil roasting pan, cover with foil - and voila - they are ready to take anywhere!!  Seriously they will keep warm for probably at least an hour - then you can just gently reheat them if you need to.  Serve them with the dipping sauce.

Stand back and watch them disappear - they are very tasty!!

The second lot of food I made was chicken wings - these are always very popular and tend to just "fly off" the table!!

Again I made 4 kgs - so adjust the recipe accordingly.

Marinated Chicken Drumettes

4kg chicken drumettes (the little drumstick end)
4tbs garlic salt
40g dried onion flakes
2tsp ground white pepper
600ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
250ml worcestershire sauce
4tbs sweet chilli sauce
2 tbs Shao Hsing wine (this is just added to to the tomato sauce bottle to get the last bit out!)

Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large ziploc bag.  Add the drumettes, mix well.  Refrigerate several hours, or overnight.

Place the drumettes and the marinade in a large roasting pan (preferably the disposable kind!)

Bake in the oven along side the chipolatas for 1 1/2 - 2 hours - turning frequently.

When the drumettes are cooked drain off the marinade and cook for a further 10-15 minutes just to allow them to "glaze" properly.

These I again put into new disposable roasting pans, covered with foil, transported and then re-warmed them.

To serve I had little bowls of ranch dressing to dip the wings into.  This was the easiest option - you may like to opt for  a blue cheese dip.

With the quantities above I ended up with around 88 sausages and around 50 drumettes.  Both of the little numbers are really good crowd pleasers - and really quite simple to make.

So Dear Readers do you have fond memories of a 21st birthday party - perhaps your own - perhaps someone else's?

PS I apologise for the photos - things got quite hectic at the end, and I just took a quick photo before I piled it all into the car - and of course when I got there - well.......