Hamburger Stroganoff

When I was pregnant for Amir I spent a lot of time batch cooking and freezing meals. That way, when our son arrived and we were so tired we'd forgotten our names let alone had the fortitude to cook dinner, it would already be done. This recipe is easily doubled (you need a big pan, though!) and frozen. Let it cool for a while then ladle it into freezer bags. Freeze the bags flat.

Hamburger Stroganoff

1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, sliced
1 10-ounce container fresh white mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 16-ounce container fat-free sour cream
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3 tbsp yellow mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika

In a skillet, brown the ground beef. Remove from pan but reserve a small amount of the drippings. Add the onions and begin to cook for approximately 3 minutes then add mushrooms and garlic. Cook until the onions are browned and the mushrooms are soft. Add the soup and stir until coated. Add the sour cream, mustard, paprika, salt and pepper and mix well.

Serve over wide egg noodles or rice.

The Verdict: My husband requests this one often. I can take it or leave it and Amir appeared to be the same way.

In the recipe's defense, I made a mistake this time around when preparing it; a mistake I've also made in the past. Be sure to use condensed cream of mushroom soup. Condensed cream soup is apparently below our hoighty-toighty supermarket, so rather than make two trips, I bought what they had. This turns the recipe into a jazzed up cream of mushroom soup. I took out a lot of the liquid to make it more of a gravy-like consistency. But it wasn't quite right.

When done right, I'm still not bowled over with it, but it's good. It's creamy and full of mushrooms, which I love. It's also, as I said earlier, perfect for freezing. But since Noyan loves it, I make it fairly often. I'd really like to try it with actual smoked Hungarian paprika to see how the taste changes. But smoked Hungarian paprika isn't one of those foods that's readily found in your local market--even the local hoighty-toighty market. When I get my hands on some, I'll add it to the recipe and report back how it tastes.