The Secret Recipe Club—Hamburger Stroganoff

Here I am with a savory meal to share today. You see, some other bloggers and I got together and decided to start a new monthly recipe group called The Secret Recipe Club (this is all the brain child of our fearless leader, Amanda from Amanda's Cookin'. You can join if you have a blog full of lots of recipes to share and want to cook/bake along with us. Once a month we will be assigned another person’s blog to pick any recipe we want to make and blog about. The clincher is that throughout the month, we will not be telling anyone whose blog we have—it’s a secret—until we post about our chosen recipe. Fun, huh. You can click on the link and sign up, too, if you’d like—the more the merrier.

The blog I received was Tami's Kitchen Table Talk. I was happy to pick something from Tami’s blog. She heads up the monthly Cookie Carnival baking group that I also participate in. Though it would have been easy for me to pick a cookie or dessert from her blog, I decided to branch out and make a savory dish. Go me! ;)

I chose a Hamburger Stroganoff that Tami came up with one day when she was preparing dinner and had some ground beef to use up. The stroganoff was great! I made a few minor changes. One thing that really caught my attention when I was looking through the recipe was that she only used onion powder in this because she said her daughter hates onions. That was the recipe for me, a fellow onion hater. ;) In Tami’s recipe she used some canned mushrooms because that is what she had at the time. I used some fresh cremini mushrooms as I happened to have some on hand. Other small changes I made was that I used less ground beef than she did. I used fresh garlic cloves instead of garlic powder and didn’t add any red pepper flakes.

One of the things that I thought really made this taste great was a gravy browning and seasoning sauce that was added to the almost finished gravy. Tami used one called Gravy Master. I could not find that in any stores, but found another called Kitchen Bouquet. It really kicked up the beef flavor in the stroganoff! Thanks, Tami! Everyone here loved this and I’m sure I’ll make it again.

Hamburger Stroganoff, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Tami at Tami’s Kitchen Table Talk

1 pound lean ground beef

3.5 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced (you could use more, that was how much I had)

1 teaspoon onion powder

extra virgin olive oil for sautéing the mushrooms and garlic

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 cans (15 oz. each) of beef broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water

2 tablespoons gravy browning and seasoning sauce (Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet)

1/2 cup light sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

fresh parsley, chopped, sprinkled over top of stroganoff

12 ounces pasta (I used Rotini) Traditional stroganoff uses a wide egg noodle, cook the pasta according to package directions to al dente

Brown the ground beef in a large skillet, add salt and onion powder. Set the browned beef aside in a bowl. Sauté’ the mushrooms for a few minutes, just before they are finished, add the garlic and cook for only about 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms to the ground beef and set aside. Pour beef broth in the skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Whisk together the cornstarch and water in a small cup/bowl. Slowly stir the cornstarch mixture in to the boiling broth and whisk until it thickens. Whisk in the browning/seasoning sauce. Add the ground beef and mushrooms to the gravy. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, pepper as desired.

Add the cooked pasta and stir together well. Stir in the sour cream until heated and serve with some fresh parsley on top.