Beef Stroganoff!

Beef Stroganoff is definitely one of our family favorites.  It's not exactly a southern dish per se, but it is a dish we have been making and enjoying in our southern family for a long time.  It's not a difficult recipe to prepare, but it does take time.  However, it is well worth it.  

A lot of recipes call for round steak and I have used round steak, but I prefer to use sirloin due to the reduced time it takes for the meat to get tender.  

If you do use round steak, use the top round and plan on simmering the meat for at least 45 minutes to an hour.  I also usually use canned cream of mushroom soup and a can of beef consomme in this, because it gives the best overall results.  I have made it without and I always go right back to using it...because it's better.

I find it funny when I get comments about using canned soups or mixes...usually from people who probably don't do a lot of cooking in the real world by the way...lol.   I am here to tell you that I do use canned soups and mixes of all kinds at one time or another, if they make something taste good.  I do not use convenience items when they compromise the taste of a recipe or the real, from scratch, is easy to make and much better.  I am not an ingredients snob, however.  

I am from the south, where we eat meat from cans and 'cheese' that is so processed it is shelf stable and will probably be good that way for years...lol.  And in some recipes there is just no substitute for Velveeta.   I buy a big ole 2lb. hunk of it about once a month.  I knew a southern family that loved it so much they named one of their kids Velveeta! 

So, if you are put off by a can of cream of mushroom soup in a recipe or a taco mix, you might be in the wrong place or you can leave it out if you want.  Whatever floats your boat.  I won't judge you for not using it, don't judge me for using it.  

 I rarely get these comments, because 99.9% of the folks who read my blog are reading it because they eat and cook a whole lot like me and my family or they are here to learn some new recipes or cooking tips and not to be a fake food critic.  

Now that we got that out of the way, here is what you will need to make this luscious beef stroganoff:

2-3 lbs. of sirloin steak or top round

1 cup flour seasoned with 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and 1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1 Tbs. minced garlic

3 Tbs. oil (I use Canola)

2 Tbs. butter

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can beef consomme or beef broth ( I prefer the consomme)

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 cup water

2 cups sour cream

parsley for garnishing

wide egg noodles or rice

Cut the beef in strips about 2 1/2 inches long.  Dredge in the seasoned flour.

Brown the beef in the butter and oil combination. Remove to a plate and saute the onion, garlic and mushrooms.  Add the beef back to skillet. Add the mushroom soup, beef consomme, water and Worcestershire sauce.  Bring to almost a boil, just to bubbling and then turn down to simmer and cover.  Simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring often to be sure it doesn't stick.  Using a nonstick skillet is best for this because it does have  a tendency to stick if you don't stir it every now and then. 

Add the sour cream to the sauce at the very end.  You need to temper the sour cream before adding it by adding a little of the hot mixture to it and mixing it in to bring the temperature up.  If you don't temper it and add it cold to the hot mixture the sour cream will 'break' and will not mix in smoothly.  Warm it back up, but do not let it boil or get too hot. It should be nice and smooth and creamy. 

Serve over wide egg noodles or rice and garnish with chopped parsley. Served with a salad, bread and of course, sweet tea...you have an amazing dinner that will become a family favorite!







Grilled Roast and Veggies!

 

In the summer, it gets extremely hot in Kentucky, especially in southern Kentucky and it is one of the most humid places on earth.  I thought it was so funny that when Paula Deen was here one summer filming the movie "Elizabethtown", she was interviewed and said this was the hottest dang place she had ever been in her life and she is from Georgia.  

 

 Needless to say, when those temperatures and humidity start to climb, I like to find ways to eliminate excess heat from the house.  I probably use my slow cooker as much or more in the summer than I do in the winter.  I also use my gas grill for as many things as possible and for things that I can do with indirect heat that don't require me standing outside over the grill.   This is one of those meals.   You cook just about your entire meal in one pan outside on the grill and then throw the pan away.  Does it get much better than that?   There is a key to grilling a roast that is edible and not dry and tough... indirect heat, marinade and using a good chuck roast.  Here is what you will need:

 

3-5 lb. beef chuck roast

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs. minced garlic

1 cup water

seasoned salt or Cajun seasoning

black pepper

5-6 red skin or Yukon Gold potatoes (scrubbed and cut and large chunks, skin left on)

2-3 sweet onions, peeled and cut in large chunks (I like to use Vidalia onions)

1 bag baby carrots

2 cups white mushrooms, halved (optional)

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

***You can get creative with the veggies.  I also like to add zucchini, yellow squash and even fresh asparagus sometimes.  If you use these vegetables, place them on top of the potatoes and carrots, because they take less time to get tender.  If you are only cooking things like squash and zucchini or asparagus, you can add them later for just about 30 minutes. 

 

Place the roast in a gallon size Ziploc bag with the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and the minced garlic.  Seal the bag and mix it around.  Place in the refrigerator and marinade for a couple of hours...at least 1 hour if you are short on time, turning the bag over a couple of times to distribute the marinade. 

 

Spray the grill racks with nonstick spray and then light all of the burners.  Place the roast right on the racks and grill on each side for about 15 minutes or until it's got good grill marks and is nice a browned.  Watch the roast during this time, because of the fat content, it can flare up. 

 

 

 When the roast is nice and browned, place in a disposable aluminum roasting pan.  You need one of the bit heavier types used for meats, not one of the flimsy thin ones used for cakes.   I like to splash just a little more soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce on the roast and then sprinkle it with either seasoned salt or sometimes I use some Cajun seasoning and some black pepper. Pour about 1 cup water around the roast in the pan and cover tightly with foil. 

 

 

We will cook this with indirect heat, so the pan with the roast will not be over the burners that are on.  I have four burners, so I turned the two the roast is over OFF and left the other two on low.  Close the grill and if it has a temperature gauge, it should get to around 400 degrees.  If it gets a lot higher than that, turn another burner off.   Cook for 1 hour at this temperature with the grill lid closed.  As long as the pan is not directly over the burners that are on, it will be fine. 

 

 

After the roast has cooked for an hour, mix the onion soup and the olive oil in a gallon Ziploc bag and add the veggies to it.  Close it and mix the veggies around really good to coat. 

 

 

Spread the veggies with the onion soup and oil mixture around the roast in the pan.  Sprinkle the veggies with a little more seasoned salt and back pepper.  If the pan is dry, add another cup of water just to the bottom of the pan.   Recover with the foil and seal.   Close the grill lid and let the temp rise to between 350 and 400.  Cook for about 1 more hour. All gas grills do not cook the same, so you have to use your own judgment on how long to cook this total.  Some grills may need a little longer, some less time.  It just depends on how even and hot your grill cooks.

 

 

  Carefully remove the pan from the grill and allow it to sit, covered for about 15 to 20 minutes, then uncover and move the roast to a  large platter to slice.  Place the veggies around it.  Add a salad and bread and dinner is done! 

 





Taco Tater Tot Bake!

It seems like almost every other day I get a request for a tater tot casserole and there are several variations.   What is this obsession with tater tots?   I think there is a certain generation that probably grew up with them and ate them a lot.  Not my generation, even though we did have them later on in school,  but more like my son's generation and a little older.  

Although, when my son went to public school and was exposed to the 'school cafeteria' food,  he came home one day during the first week and when I asked him what they had for lunch, he said, "We had some sort of square/round potato things!   They weren't that bad, but weird. "   For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about.  My sister-in-law just happened to be at the house and she starting laughing (mostly at me) and said to me, "It was tater tots, you idiot"!  She meant that affectionately, I am sure...lol.  She couldn't believe I never had served this child tater tots, but I hadn't.  

 I was raised by the queen of 'from scratch' cooking and I sort of cooked the same way, although I did use more convenience foods than Mama did and still do.  It just never dawned on me to buy and serve tater tots.   My mother never even bought frozen French fries when we were growing up.  She cut them by hand and I still do that myself sometimes.  Mama always made the best French fries!   We just didn't buy a lot of things like frozen and ready made foods.  

However, I am not adverse to using such things on occasion.  I use frozen hash browns and French fries and even tater tots for a quick meal.   I am not what I refer to as a 'food snob'. 

Since I started Sweet Tea and Cornbread, I have been subjected to the 'food snobs' of the world and I don't care for them.  They are equally annoying and amusing to me.  You know those people who leave comments, like "I do not use cake mixes, ever" or "Velveeta is poison" or "I will not use canned soup in anything".  When I see those comments it translates to,  "I can't cook, eat things far worse for me than cake mixes, canned soups or Velveeta, and have no life.. so I come on random food blogs to razz people like you"...lol.  

 Now, maybe some of these folks do live this way and don't eat any 'processed'  foods or use any 'packaged' foods or consume any 'trans fats' and that's fine and probably is better for you, but if so, why on earth are they reading a food blog called 'Sweet Tea and Cornbread'?   They aren't all that smart are they?  It's hilarious, bless their lil ole hearts!   Those of us who have cooked for years, pretty much every day of our adult lives, see through all of that pretense and fake superiority pretty fast!   

Any who, on to this Tater Tot casserole.   Every time I say or write Tater Tot now, I think of Ron White...lol.    This recipe is a Mexican twist on the old Tater Tot casseroles and it is so good.  We really enjoy it!  This also feeds a lot of people on a budget.  If you are feeding teenagers and especially teenage boys, you know they can eat you out of house and home.  I know when I fed my son and his friends and my nephews during those years, I could not cook enough food.   This recipe will be a huge hit with them!   

 Here is what you need:

1- 1.5lb. ground chuck

1/2 cup onion,  diced

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1 cup water

1 can ranch style beans or chili hot beans, undrained

2 cups frozen yellow whole kernel corn or 1 can yellow whole kernel corn, drained

1 (12 oz.) can enchilada sauce

1 (32 oz.) bag of tater tots

2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (can use shredded cheddar)

2  cups crushed tortilla chips

Garnishes

taco sauce, salsa, additional cheese, sliced green onion, olives, shredded lettuce, sour cream...anything you like on tacos

 Brown the ground chuck with the onion.  Add the taco seasoning and the cup of water.  Add the beans and corn.  Bring to a bubble and then turn down to low.  



 Spray a 3 quart casserole dish with nonstick spray  I used my 3 quart round Temptations Baker, but a 9"x13" baking dish also works.   Pour half of the enchilada sauce in the bottom to cover.

Layer the tater tots evenly over the sauce.  You do not cook them, frozen is fine.

Spread the meat mixture evenly over the tater tots.  Pour the other half of the enchilada sauce over all.

Spread the shredded cheese over the top and place in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.  You do not cover this.

Remove from oven and sprinkle the crushed tortilla chips over the top.  Return to the oven for about 10 minutes. 

Serve with the same garnishes you would with tacos and let each person garnish their own serving! 





Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage!

I get a surprising number of requests for "Corned Beef and Cabbage".  I am going to be honest with you though,  Corned Beef and Cabbage is not really a southern Kentucky kind of dish.  I was never really sure why this would be the case, because of the large percentage of those living here with Irish heritage. 

 However, when I researched the dish, I found out that it's actually an Irish American tradition and dish and not much of an actual Irish one at all.  From what I read, the Irish did produce beef and corned beef, but most of the working class folks did not eat a lot of beef, because it was very expensive and their cows were for milking, not eating.  

What they did eat, was a lot of pork, which they cured and could keep easier and was more available and less expensive.  That is very much how my grandparents, who were farmers, lived right here in Kentucky.   They relied heavily on pork, much more than beef or even chicken.  Cows produced milk, butter and such and chickens laid eggs.  You didn't eat those because they produced things you could eat, sell or trade.

It seems the corned beef became an Irish American favorite from the unique blending of Jewish Americans and Irish Americans when they both began settling in New York City.  The Jewish delis in that area are known for their wonderful way with corned beef and pastrami.   I love good pastrami and you actually cannot hardly find it here in southern Kentucky, I guess because so few people eat it.

This is my version of "Corned Beef and Cabbage" and it's probably a little different than the traditional you might be served in the northeast or even in the mid west, but it does result in a very flavorful, delicious meal.  Here is what you will need:

4-5 pound corned beef brisket (the kind with the little seasoning packet)

3 medium size onions, quartered

2 cups water mixed with 2 Tbs. beef bullion granules or 1 can beef broth

2 Tbs. minced garlic

seasoned salt

black pepper (fresh ground is best)

5-6 carrots, peeled and cut in thirds

5-6 potatoes, peeled and cut in fourths

1 head green cabbage,  cored and cut in four wedges

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbs. spicy brown or Dijon mustard

1 Tbs. prepared horseradish

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

In a large, 5 to 6 quart, slow cooker place the quartered onions on the bottom.  Rinse the corned beef brisket off with cool water and pat dry.   Place it on top of the onions.  Sprinkle lightly with seasoned salt and grind fresh black pepper over it.  Sprinkle the contents of the seasoning packet over the brisket.  Sprinkle the minced garlic over all.  Mix the water with the bouillon powder and pour around the meat.  Don't pour it over the top, it will wash all of your seasoning off of it.  

Set the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.   When it has cooked for 4 hours, add the potatoes, carrots and wedges of cabbage right on top to the pot. Sprinkle the vegetables with some salt and pepper.   Cover and cook for 4 more hours on low. 

With a large spatula, carefully remove the meat to a large baking dish.  Mix the brown sugar, mustard, prepared horseradish and Worcestershire sauce until smooth and pour it over the brisket.  Place in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes uncovered.  You might need to add just a little water to the bottom of the pan, but don't add much.   If this seems like a lot of cooking time, it is.  Brisket is a very tough cut of meat.  It needs the long slow cooking and lots of it.

This just puts a nice brown glaze and finish on the meat.  It might just be the southerner in me, but this step just makes this thing called corned beef better.   Let the meat sit and rest once out of the oven for about 15 minutes.   Slice, across the grain, in nice even slices.   Be sure to slice across the grain or you will have corned beef strings.  If you cut the wrong way it shreds and this is not a cut of meat to shred.

I just placed the brisket in the serving pan that I would serve the entire dish in at the table, so that all I had to do was place the cabbage, carrots and potatoes around the slices of meat and ladle some of delicious juices over all.   





Hamburger Vegetable Stew!

This is one of those one pot meals that is great when you want homemade, but don't have all afternoon to cook or to wait.  Sometimes, I decide I want something like vegetable soup at the last minute and I didn't thaw out stew meat, much less start it 'stewing' earlier in the day.  There is nothing worse than a big pot of wonderful vegetable beef soup with tough beef in it that hasn't had long enough to get tender.   That is when this recipe comes into play for me.  My husband loves this soup.  I think he might like it even better than the old fashioned kind with the stew meat that takes several hours. 

 Here is all you will need for this:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs. ground chuck

1 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup sliced celery

2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 (12 oz.)  bag frozen mixed vegetables (I used the Bird's Eye Steamfresh brand)

1 (20 oz.) can crushed tomatoes

1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce

2 cups V-8 juice

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. sugar

1 pkg. dry beefy onion soup (I used Lipton's)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Cajun seasoning or seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

dash of Tabasco sauce (optional)

8 cups water

6 oz. egg noodles, uncooked or 1/2 of a 12 oz. bag

Brown the ground chuck along with the diced onion and sliced celery in a Dutch oven or large soup pot.  Drain any excess grease off.    Add all of the other ingredients, except the egg noodles.  Bring up to a boil, turn down to low, cover and let simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring a few times during the cooking time.  

Add in the uncooked egg noodles. Turn the heat up to medium just to cook the noodles, although egg noodles don't require a lot of cooking time.  As they cook, you might need to add a couple of cups of additional water.  You can tell if it's getting too thick . After about 30 minutes, when the egg noodles are tender,  taste for seasoning, you might need a little more salt and pepper according to your preference.   Then it's ready to serve! 

This can be made using your slow cooker also.  Brown the ground chuck before putting in the slow cooker, add the other ingredients except for the noodles.  Decrease the water to about 6 cups.  Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.  Add the eggs noodles in the last hour of cooking, on high.

This is so good and so easy!





Lasagna Soup!

  

 

This soup is one that I came up with one night when I wanted lasagna, but I didn't want to wait a couple of hours to eat.  It was also really cold outside and I sort of just wanted some soup so I took my ingredients that I had been intending to make lasagna with and turned them into lasagna soup.  It's much quicker to prepare than lasagna and it's a little lighter on the calories, but those lasagna flavors are all there.   Here is what you will need:

1 lb. ground chuck (you can use Italian sausage if you prefer)
1 cup onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 Tbs. garlic, minced
3 beef bouillon cubes
6 cups water
1 (26 oz.)  jar spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce ( I prefer the Ragu Sun Dried Tomato Sweet Basil)
2 (14.5 oz.) cans of diced tomatoes (I like the seasoned ones with garlic and basil)
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed fennel seed (optional, some don't care for fennel)
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, crushed (optional, leave it out if you don't care for the heat)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. dried parsley
8 oz. mini lasagna pasta or technically it's called mulfalda (this can be hard to find so you can use broken lasagna noodles or even rotini or bow ties would work)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese, divided

Brown ground chuck or Italian sausage along with the onion, green pepper, and minced garlic. Add all other ingredients except the pasta and cheeses.  Bring to a boil and then turn it down to low and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Stir in the uncooked pasta and 1 cup mozzarella and 1/2 cup Parmesan or Asiago cheese, simmer until pasta is tender and the cheeses are melted...about 10 - 15 minutes more. Stir from the bottom to be sure the cheese doesn't stick and melts through out the soup! 

 



Sprinkle each bowl with additional cheese and a little parsley and serve with hot bread sticks!

Lasagna Soup!