Vegetarian "Beef" Stroganoff

"Beef" Stroganoff with grilled
zucchini and slice of homemade bread

Even when I make beef stroganoff, I don't really make beef stroganoff.  

Confusing?

Let me explain.  Though I certainly can make, and have made, beef stroganoff, I prefer to use pork.  However, when I say I'm making "pork stroganoff" I get very strange looks, so I simply call it beef stroganoff.

The same concept applies when I make a vegetarian version.  

So I'm going to tell you how I make beef stroganoff with no meat (or meat products) at all.

I don't believe that vegetarian food has to be bland and taste like cardboard.  I know, if you're a vegetarian you already know this, but I think it's a fairly common misconception for those of us (like me) who are confirmed meat-eaters.  

My wife was a vegan when we met.  She eventually changed to vegetarian, then went back to eating meat and has now come almost full-circle and is a vegetarian again.  My goal when cooking for her is to make things that I would like and be happy to eat as a meat-eater.  This is one of the first things I came up with when I started cooking for her a number of years ago and I've made it for a number of other vegetarian friends (you know who you are!).  So far they all seem to love it.  I've even made a vegan version simply by substituting vegan sour cream for the "real" kind.

Ingredients

• 2 packages fake beef strips (we get ours at Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup flour
• Olive oil for browning
• 1 package fresh sliced mushrooms (I generally use "baby bellas”, but any kind you like would work just fine - and if you are allergic or simply don't like them, leave them out)
• 1 small onion, diced (optional)
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 bottle red wine (use whatever kind you like - I've used a shiraz, burgundy, merlot, cabernet.  A good general rule of thumb is that you don't want to use the best stuff but you want it to be something that you would actually drink.  We love "Two Buck Chuck" from Trader Joe's - it's reasonably priced with good flavor)
• 1 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• seasoning to taste (I use ground rosemary, oregano, garlic powder and basil - choose seasonings you like.  There's no right or wrong so feel free to experiment)
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 8 oz sour cream
  

Directions

1.     Put the flour in a bowl and season it       (I use seasoning salt, black pepper and garlic powder, but you could use any seasonings you like).  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.     Dredge the beef strips through the flour.

3.     Using a heavy bottomed pan (I like to use a dutch oven), lightly brown the beef strips in the olive oil.

4.     After all of the beef strips have been browned and removed from the pan, saute the mushrooms (and onions if you use them) in the same oil you used for the beef strips.  You will probably have to add a bit more oil – the mushrooms seem to “swallow” it.  Cook them until they soften and the juices start to come out of the mushrooms.

Browning the "beef"

5.     Pour the wine into the pan – it will make lots of noise and steam.  You can scrape all of the crusty bits out of the bottom while the wine is cooking – these really help with the flavor. 

6.     Cook on high until the wine is reduced by about half.

7.     Add the vegetable stock, put the beef strips back in and bring to a boil.

After adding mushrooms, onions, wine,
vegetable broth and seasonings

8.     Add the bay leaves and other seasonings and stir.

9.     Put on the lid and put in the oven at 350 for an hour.  You could actually do this on the stovetop as well at a very low temperature.

10.  Take it out of the oven and put it back on top of the stove.  Take off the lid to see how thick it is – at this point it may be thick enough, but if you think it needs to be a bit thicker, mix together a cornstarch/water slurry and drizzle it in while stirring until it reaches the thickness you want.

Directly out of the oven

11.  Add the sour cream, a small bit at a time until it reaches the taste that you want (if you want a vegan version, use vegan sour cream).

Stroganoff, after adding sour cream

12.  Serve over cooked egg noodles (it would probably be good over rice as well).  For a vegan version, use eggless noodles or serve over rice.

If an entire bottle of wine seems like it's too much, simply use more vegetable stock.  Just make sure that the beef strips and mushrooms, etc. are covered by liquid.  I make my own vegetable stock (which is actually VERY simple and tastes MUCH better than store bought) but whichever kind you use will work fine.

  

Shepherd's Pie (even a Vegetarian version!)

I made smaller versions to freeze.  One row is vegetarian,
the other is hamburger.  Can you tell the difference?

I'd like to start by saying that I grew up in the Midwest and had never even HEARD of Shepherd's Pie until I moved to New England, so I came to this party a bit late - and when I've had it other places, it's typically dry.

I don't like dry food.

I don't do dry food.

Being that I'm from the Midwest and we have gravy with everything, I decided that I wanted my Shepherd's Pie to reflect that - and to NOT be dry.

I also don't care much for bland, boring flavors. I like unusual flavor combinations, even in something as "down home" (just not where I grew up) as Shepherd's Pie. You'll see that I use curry in my Shepherd's Pie. If you/your family don't like curry (and no, curry does NOT have to be hot - I don't care for spicy food, although if you do, you can certainly use the hot curry that's available. I use the "sweet mild curry" from Penzey's Spices), feel free to substitute a seasoning that you DO like.  I can tell you that the curry flavor is unusual enough in shepherd's pie that people typically can't identify exactly what the flavor is, but without exception everyone I've served it to loves it and asks me if I'll make it for them again.

I really cook from the recipe book in my head - so the measurements here are the best I can do. I do a LOT of taste it, season it and repeat until it gets to the flavor I like. I also very rarely measure anything when I'm cooking (baking being the exception) so trying to write something down that I make up in my head as I go along takes some effort. I have to try to remember what I did as I went along and when your memory is as poor as mine, that's a difficult thing to do.

So, let me apologize in advance for any of my measurements that are off, but here goes:

Ingredients

(serves 8 - did I mention I grew up in a large family?)

• 2 pounds ground beef (for a vegetarian version, use Morningstar Farm's Crumbles instead)
• 10 medium potatoes (russett, white, or yukon gold depending upon preference)
• 1 can corn
• 2 cans creamed corn

  

  The vegetarian version with the corn added.  This
  time I roasted the corn on the grill first, then cut it
  off to put over the Crumbles.  More work, but the
  taste makes it worth it!

• 1 medium diced onion
• 1 stick butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp Kitchen Bouquet (yes, this is vegetarian)
• milk
• garlic powder
• curry (if you don't like curry, substitute a spice you do like i.e., rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc.)
• salt
• pepper
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions

1. This dish can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until ready to bake. IF you are planning on eating right after making it, preheat the oven to 350 now.
2. Peel, dice and boil the potatoes. When they are fork tender, strain them (keep the water from the potatoes and set aside).
3. Cut the butter up and add to the potatoes along with salt and pepper. Start mashing them and slowly add milk until they are the consistency you want (you're simply making mashed potatoes after all, and no, I have no idea how much milk, salt or pepper to add. I've been making mashed potatoes since I was about eight and I just add the milk and seasonings until it looks/tastes right). Set aside the mashed potatoes for later.
4. Dice the onion.
5. Brown the hamburger (or the Crumbles). Add the diced onion about halfway through. Season with garlic powder, salt, pepper and curry. I taste it until it reaches the flavor I want. I truly don't know how much curry I add, but I believe it's about a tablespoon. If you want a stronger flavor, use more, for a lighter flavor, use less. Let your taste buds be your guide. Learn to trust them!
6. Strain the hamburger. Keep the grease that comes off of the hamburger (this is what I use as a base for the gravy - if you're using Crumbles, obviously skip this section)
7. Put the hamburger grease back in the skillet. Heat it up and add two tablespoons of flour (could be more or less depending upon how much grease you have). The grease/flour mixture will get very pasty. 
8. If I'm making a vegetarian version, I typically will use the "Better than Bouillon" vegetable or mushroom base, a little bit of water and use that as the basis for the gravy.
9. Start adding the water from the potatoes to the pan, a little at a time (over medium high heat) and KEEP STIRRING (note the caps - very important). At first, the flour mixture in the pan will absorb all of the water, but eventually, you will reach a point where the mixture will thin out. Once that happens, just keep stirring until it thickens again to be the consistency you want for gravy. At this point, I add the Kitchen Bouquet/Gravy Master. You can also add some garlic powder/curry/other spices until you have the flavor you prefer. You may want to strain the gravy also, depending entirely upon whether it's lumpy or not; and if this bothers you.
10. Add the gravy to the browned hamburger/crumbles. You may not want to add all of it, depending upon how much you have. I like to add enough to make it very moist, but NOT soupy at all.
11. Pour the hamburger/gravy mixture into the bottom of a 13 x 9 pan and spread until it's evenly covered.
12. Open the cans of corn and combine them. Spread the corn mixture on top of the hamburger/crumbles mixture until it's evenly covered.
13. Spread the mashed potatoes over the corn until evenly covered.
14. Cover with foil. At this point, you can store in the refrigerator until you're ready to bake it or bake it right away (it will last 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator like this so if you want to make it ahead of time, you can).
15. Preheat oven to 350.
16. Bake for one hour, covered. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. I like to sprinkle shredded cheese over the top when I remove the foil (alternately, you could put shredded cheese in the mashed potatoes when you make them and have it melt as it bakes).

Serve with some kind of crusty bread and butter (I usually bake my own or get the garlic ciabatta from our local grocery store) and a salad.

The finished version topped with shredded cheese.