Stroganoff!

Lots of cooking this weekend! I made banana bread, strawberry rhubarb pie, and mushroom stroganoff. The banana bread is a recipe from cooking light - classic banana bread. Pretty much the recipe I use every time. Why mess with what works? The only changes I make are to use 1/2 to 2/3 cups whole wheat flour, less sugar (1/2 to 2/3 cup instead of 1 cup) and I add pecans or walnuts. This time, I only had vanilla yogurt so I used less sugar.I made the pie for a friend's birthday. I didn't mess with the sugar, since it was for someone else :). The crust is the pate brisse from Martha Stewart that I first tried on thanksgiving. It is not that difficult, but yields such a crisp, flakey, and buttery crust. The filling is the Rhubarb-Stawberry-Rose pie sans roses from The Great American Bake Sale, compiled by Michael J. Rosen. The whole pie turned out tasty and pretty, if I do say so myself!

I love creamy mushroom stroganoff. It can be a bit rich, so I decided to make a deconstructed version so that each portion (mushrooms, noodles, and sour cram) stands out. Of course, this neccessitates a very flavorful mushroom ragout. Here is my vegetarian version. I served with broccoli sauteed with garlic, lemon zest, and olive oil and finished with lemon juice.

Deconstructed Mushroom Stroganoff

For the mushroom ragout:
2 tbs. butter
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
10 oz. mushrooms (I used cremini)
1/2 package dried mushrooms soaked in 1 c. water
bay leaf
1 tsp. herbs de Provence
1/3 c. brandy
1 Tbs. soy sauce + 2 Tbs. brewers yeast + 1 c. water (or use 1 c. vegetable broth)

For the sour cream sauce:
1/2 c. sour cream
1/2 bunch parsely
1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese
lemon

For the noodles:
1/2 package whole wheat egg noodles
1 Tbs. butter

paprika, for garnish

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil and butter. Finely dice onion, carrots, and celery. Mince garlic. Saute onions over medium heat, until starting to color. Add carrots, celery, garlic, herbs de Provence, bay leaf, and pepper. Cook for a few minutes. Slice mushrooms. Remove soaked mushrooms from water (reserving for later) and chop finely. Add to pan, and cook until everything colors nicely. There should be browned bits on the pan. This is good (see picture). Add brandy and turn up heat. De-glaze pan (i.e. scrape all those brown bits up). Once all the bits are scraped up and the brandy has evaporated, add the reserved mushroom soaking water, and 1 cup water + 2 Tbs. brewers yeast + 1 Tbs soy sauce, and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer, and partially cover pan. Some of the liquid should evaporate, but there should still be enough to be saucy. Keeping the pan partially covered allows you to control this.

Meanwhile, set a large pot of water boiling for the noodles and prepare the sour cream sauce. Finely mince the parsely. Mix the sour cream, minced parsely, and parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice to brighten the flavor, to taste. Set aside. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain, and melt butter in same pot. Add noodles and stir to coat with butter.

Assemble dish: Put noodles on a plate. Top with mushroom ragout, be sure to get some of the sauce. Add a few dollops of the sour cream sauce, and garnish with paprika.