Some days...you're an overachiever.
When I woke up this morning, I knew that I had Beef Stroganoff on the menu for today. I also knew I didn't have egg noodles or cream of mushroom soup. What I DID have, was some beautiful oyster mushrooms from the Farmers Market. Today was a super fun kitchen day!
Making pasta from scratch is actually pretty easy. I'll give you guys the details and step by step below. What's even easier is making your own "cream of...." soup. I would encourage everyone to ditch the gross gelatinous goo that comes in a can, and try this recipe for yourselves.
Cream of Anything Soup (condensed - like you get in a can - this makes one "can" worth)
Ingredients:
Butter - 3 TBSP
Minced yellow onion - 2 TBSP
Minced garlic - 2 tsp
All purpose flour - 1/4 cup
Chicken broth - 3/4 cup
Milk - 3/4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp (you can use to taste - I like a lot of pepper)
Your "cream of" ingredient (mushrooms - 1/2 cup finely chopped OR , celery (3 TBSP finely chopped) OR, chicken bullion 1 and 1/2 tsp (for cream of chicken)
Melt butter over medium high heat. Sauté onion, garlic and your "can of" ingredient (mushrooms, celery or bullion) for 3 - 5 minutes. You don't want it to brown, just cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent.
Put your milk and chicken broth together in a cup.
Add your flour to the onion mixture and stir well. The flour should attach itself to the vegetables and kind of disappear - everything will look "coated". Cook, stirring constantly for no fewer than 2 minutes (this cooks off the raw flour flavor). After 2-3 minutes, VERY SLOWLY, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY, add you milk / broth combo. Keep adding and whisking until it's all incorporated. It will go from the liquid kind of sloshing around in the pan, to a paste, and then to a more sauce-like consistency. Keep whisking. Once all the milk / broth has been added and the mixture is smooth, continue to cook for a few more minutes, until it really starts to thicken. Remove from heat. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
Use as you would a can of the stuff. That includes just making it into a soup! Remember this is a condensed cream of .... soup. You will need to thin it for some recipes. Like I said, use just as if you were scooping it out of the can, for recipes.
Now. That was super easy right?!? Let's make egg noodles!! I actually remembered to take a few pictures when making them. Instructions are in the pictures, and full recipe is below them.
So here's the recipe for Egg Noodles - I got it from Becky at Acre Homestead. She has a super cool video and everything.
Egg Noodles
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 large or 4 small eggs
up to 1 Tbsp water
In a food processor, with the blade attachment, pulse flour and salt for a few seconds to mix.
Add eggs (all at once is fine) and pulse together until a dough forms. If it's too crumbly, add up to a tablespoon of water. If it's too wet, don't worry about it. We'll add some flour while we knead.
Turn out onto a clean work surface and knead (adding flour to your surface as necessary to prevent sticking - I'm not talking about adding a cup of flour here, just sprinkle some on the surface and a little on top if you are sticking to the dough. If the dough is not sticky - skip the added flour and just get to kneading). Knead for 3-5 minutes.
Cover and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes - up to an hour or so.
Cut your ball of dough into quarters (it's easier to deal with) and roll it out as thinly as you'd like. If you think, wow, this is probably thin enough, it's not. Make it a little thinner. Bonus points if you have a pasta roller (which I do, but did not use. I should have.), you can put the sections of dough through your pasta roller to your desired thickness, and then cut to the length / width you want. Unless you have a pasta cutter - in which case your life is way easier - use it. I have a pasta cutter that I also failed to use. (I used the side of a square plate and a pizza cutter. Use what you have - anyone who is measuring your noodles and criticizing loses the right to eat it.)
I like to let my pasta dry for at least a few minutes before I boil it - bring a pot of salted (yes add the salt - it is what gives the pasta FLAVA!), to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 2-4 minutes. Fresh pasta cooks WAY faster than dried. Check it after two minutes. Now is not the time to leave the kitchen and catch up on conversations or Housewives (does anyone really watch that show?). Drain and use as you would packaged egg noodles, but with the pride and pleasure of having make it from scratch!
My Famous (?) Beef Stroganoff
1 pound ground beef (sometimes I use stew beef - depending on my mood and what's in my freezer)
1 "can" cream of mushroom soup (make it - at least once)
1 - 16 oz container of sour cream (we'll be making that at some point too - because - why not?)
1/2 yellow onion - minced (or throw in a tsp or two of onion powder)
3 cloves garlic - minced (or throw in a tsp or two of garlic powder)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste - I actually use about 2 tsps)
1 pckg of egg noodles (ooooorrrrr - make your own)
Start a pot of water to boil. Salt the water. Seriously, salt it.
Over medium high heat, brown your ground beef. If using, add onions and garlic to sauté along with the beef. Once it's all browned and yummy looking, add the can of cream of mushroom soup. Stir well and turn to low. Allow to continue to cook on low while you wait for your water to boil. (It's ready now, but we have to wait on the noodles).
As soon as the water boils, add your noodles - cook according to the package or the fresh pasta instructions above - depending on which noodles you are using.
Once the noodles are done - drain them completely. Turn off the heat under the beef mixture, but do not remove from burner. Dump the pasta back into the empty noodle water pot - or put in a LARGE bowl. Add the sour cream and salt and pepper to the beef mixture. Mix very well. Allow to heat through a little and dump on top of the noodles. Mix well. Serve. Yum.
NOTE: Do not add your sour cream to your hot beef mixture while on heat. The sour cream could curdle. Not yum. Well - still yum, but looks gross.
I hope you all give these recipe's a try and even if you don't, have an amazing day!
Best wishes!
