Beef Stroganoff

There are a million recipes for beef stroganoff, but THIS is the strogonoff that my dad makes. So in my eyes it is comfort food, and the best stroganoff recipe out there.

Ingredients

250g mushrooms sliced
500g blade steak
1 onion fine diced
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 tbs tomato paste
1/3 cup of beef stock
1 tsp sour cream

Method

Cook onions in oil until translucent. Add in beef and brown. (if your pan is small you might want to brown the beef in batches so it doesn't stew).

Once all the beef is browned add in the mushrooms, a pinch of salt and pepper, and pour in the stock. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add in the sour cream and cornflour and stir till thickend. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve with something green like snow peas, beans, or brocolli, and some potatoes or pasta.

Enjoy!

Home made chicken noodle soup

I always loved it when my dad made his chicken noodle soup. So light and filling and yummy. Now that I make it myself I love it for many reasons - because it reminds me of home, because it makes a bucketload of soup (very economical), because it is so easy to make, and because it is good for you! These days I tend to make the soup, and then use the poached chicken for salads or in other dishes. I have the veggies and broth with noodles.

One pot of soup makes many many dishes.

Home made chicken noodle soup

1 whole chicken
3 carrots sliced
2 parsnips sliced (we do lengthways quarters, just a family thing)

1 onion diced
1 garlic finely chopped
water to cover
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley (optional)

salt and pepper to taste
egg noodles for serving

Cook onion on a low heat until translucent in a big old soup/stock pot.  Pile all the other veggies in. Sit the whole chicken on top. Cover with water. Bring to boil and then lower the heat and simmer for about 50mins - 1 hr or until the chicken is falling off the bone. Adjust your seasoning of salt and pepper to taste. Remove chicken. Use a paper towel to skim any fat/froth from top of soup. You can then either shred the meat and return to the pot or use the poached chicken in other dishes.

Serve soup with freshly cooked egg vermicelli noodles.

Makes about 10-12 bowls of soup, freezes well (sans noodles), and lasts in the fridge for days.

Placki z jabłkami (aka apple pancakes)

I bought some yummy apples at the farmers markets a couple of weeks ago & figured I should use them up!
Apple pancakes are just delightful served warm, and are also nice served cold so they make a lovely snack to take to work/school/picnics. Very easy to make - if you can make a pikelet you can make these babies.

Ingredients

2 eggs
350ml milk
2 tbs sugar
2 1/2 cups of self raising flour
3 small or 2 large apples

bit of butter for frying
icing sugar to serve

Method

Whisk eggs, sugar, milk till frothy. Fold in flour.

Peel, core, half and finely slice apples.

Makes a generous amount for breakfast or morning tea :)

Heat pan, rub v lightly with butter. Put a spoonful of batter into pan, press two halves of apple into the batter. Cook till bubble appear. Flip over and cook till the bottom is brown.

Serve with icing sugar sprinkled over the top. They are also nice with a bit of cinnamon in the batter - a bit apple tea-cakey. :)

Note: You can also slice the apples into match-sticks or even grate them and just incorporate them into the mix instead. I just prefer this method because you get a little bit more crunch to the apple.

Chive Kluski with Garlic Cream

Love love love this. I was tired, and had only odd things in the fridge - leftover mashed potato, boursin, half a carton of cream, and a rubbery carrot. I really must go shopping... Anyway, mother is the neccessity of invention, so I took on the challenge, and came up with this dish. OMG it is really yummy. It's a take on a normal potato kluski (see my kluski recipe for more detail). Basically to the potato kluski recipe add 1 bunch of finely chopped chives. Then boil them and strain them. These kluski are soft, pillowy, and savoury. A great addition at this point to soups and stews... I can just imagine them in a chicken soup. The experiment was not to end here, though...

To a pan add a lug of olive oil with 1tsp of butter. Add in the kluski and cook until golden on the outside. At this point they are great as a side dish to steak etc - soft inside, slighty crunchy outside, with that lovely slightly oniony flavour. But, I wasn't yet done.

Pour in some cream and crumble in 1/2 a pat of boursin (a lovely creamy garlicky cheese). Stir till melted and the sauce thickens. Eat with cries of pleasure at just how delicious it is. I would have sprinkled some herbs on top, but I had used all the chives and it was too dark and cold to go outside and find any herbage... but I think a little bit of parsley or thyme would be lovely on top.