'Beef' stroganoff

A while ago I bought some of those Lamyong TVP beef slice things for some reason. They aren't that good, but they aren't terrible and they are good for a bit of a protein change. Before we move I'm trying to use up as much of my pantry food as possible so I don't have to move it all. Next on the list was the beef style thingamees so I decided on a take on a traditional beef stroganoff! This recipe is much better than the first one I posted. Much much better.

'Beef' stroganoff

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 a packet Lamyong Beef strips (75g)

2 tbsp wholemeal plain flour

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 large cloves garlic, crushed

450g portobello or swiss brown mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup white wine (I used sav blanc)

3/4 cup stock (I used chicken style but beef would be better)

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp mustard powder

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 cup silken tofu, blended smooth (important)

Pasta to serve

Method:

First, put the beef slices in a bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Leave until it's soft. Use this water to make the stock.

Heat a little bit of oil in a stock pot and cook onions and garlic until they start to soften. Add mushrooms to pot and cook until they start to release the juice. Mix together the wine, stock and tomato paste in a jug or cup or something. Start water boiling to cook pasta.

Put the flour in the pot with the mushrooms and stir quickly. Once it has cooked for a minute, pour in the liquid and stir so no lumps form. Let simmer for a while, sauce should thicken. Add in softened beef slices, mustard and paprika. By now the water should be boiling. Continue cooking stroganoff until pasta is ready. A few minutes before serving, stir through the tofu. It's important that it's blended so it's smooth. As you can see in my photo mine wasn't, and therefore came out all lumpy!

Serve on pasta and enjoy.

-------

This is really good, even better the next day. however the tvp beef stuff does NOT freeze well. This would also be delicious with tofu chunks, tempeh, seitan, or some sort of bean, or double the mushrooms. For example, if I was serving to family I'd go for the beans or all mushroom version :)

Moving time!

Nadine and I recently got approved to rent A REAL HOUSE. With like, a backyard (and a front yard!) and most importantly -  A KITCHEN! With a PANTRY. You have no idea (or maybe you do!) at how much of a luxury a proper pantry is. I am very excited. My new garden will have room for vegetables and it has a garden shed in which I'll have to store a lawn mower.

So, to celebrate, instead of beans and rice (pretty much what we'll be living on as we move) I made a pot pie from Veganomicon. The 'Cauliflower and Mushroom Potpie with Black Olive Crust' which we have indeed made before, though I could not remember it. Since cauliflower is so expensive at the moment we changed the ingredients a little. We were going to use brocolli instead but the tiny lone stalk left at woolies was very sick looking, so I went for the sugarloaf cabbage instead. It was on special :) I like cabbage. And I used some nice portobello mushrooms which were reducted to clear.

And it was a delicious and fitting way to celebrate the arrival of a next home.

Kebab sticks with peanut sauce

This is one of the best meals I have made lately. Basically kebab sticks with eggplant, button mushrooms, asparagus and tempeh. Serve it on top of rice with peanut sauce! We also drank a glass of rose wine with it too. Instead of actual tempeh, I bought this tofu-tempeh which was 80% tofu and 20% tempeh. We don't realllly like tempeh (hate it haha, It's revolting) so I thought this would be nice as a transition to help get used to it. It's not too tempeh-y but still has some of the health benefits that tofu alone doesn't have.

3 mushroom pasta

This weekend we decided to go and visit my partner's mother :) This is what she made for dinner:

3 Mushroom Pasta
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

Olive oil and knob of vegan margarine for frying
100g white button mushrooms, sliced
100g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
100g Oyster mushrooms, sliced
Handful each of basil, curly leaved parsley and Italian parsley (or just one kind of parsley), chopped
1birdseye chilli, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves chopped
splash of white wine
Cooked pasta (we used a gluten free corn and rice twist pasta but any kind will do)

Method:

Have all mushrooms, onion, chilli, garlic and herbs sliced and ready. Heat olive oil and knob of margarine in a deep frying pan until margarine is melted. Add in garlic, onion and chilli and fry until onion is translucent.

Add mushrooms and splash of wine and stir. Leave it to cook while you chop up all the herbs finely. When the mushrooms are soft, add in herbs and cook for a few minutes.

Serve on top of cooked pasta!

This was so yummy. Each mushroom had such a distinctive flavour. I've never had shiitake or oyster mushrooms before and I now know I like them.

First post with Mushroom Stroganoff!

Welcome!

I based this on a recipe from Leah Leneman's 'Easy Vegan Cooking' . I added a few things which I'll put in bold.

Mushroom Stroganoff

455g mushrooms

4tbs vegetable oil

1 clove garlic (I used at least 3)

1 onion

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

2 cups vegetable stock (I used Massel's Salt Reduced Chicken stock)

340g tofu (I find Nutrisoy to be the best tasting)

Sea salt, black pepper, mustard powder to taste

I added to the original ingredients:

1 large carrot, diced

3 birdseye chillies (I grow my own, they're quite hot)

About 200g of green beans

About 2/3 cup of whole pitted olives

Method:

Slice mushrooms. I used portobello mushrooms. (At least that's what the label at woolworths said. They like to chop and change). You can slice them as big or as small as you like. You could even puree them if you wanted, if you don't like chunky mushroom.

Chop up the vegetables.

Add vegetables (minus the mushrooms) to a large cooking pot with a little bit of oil (or you could use a bit of water if you don't want to use oil). Fry them on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, while you make the tofu cream.

Chop up the tofu into chunks (I just used the whole 350g packet). Blend it until smooth. (This type of tofu takes a little longer because it's firm, but you can buy soft or silken tofu as well, which will make it a bit more smoother, but this one works fine for me.)

Add enough water while blending to make about 600mL of tofu 'cream'. I added about 1 1/2 cups of water. Try not to add too much, because the cream will be watery and runny. I did that once and the meal tasted mainly of liquid tofu rather than mushrooms.

Meanwhile, add mushrooms to the pot and cook until soft.

After that, add the 1/2 cup of flour and stir, then slowly pour in the 2 cups of stock. Stir constantly to avoid lumps.

Pour in the tofu cream and stir through. Turn heat down to low when it starts to boil. Cover, and leave to cook, but stir it occasionally, while you cook the pasta. You can add the seasonings here if you like. I think I used a very large tablespoon of mustard powder, and a fair bit of black pepper. No salt. Instead of mustard powder, I'm sure you can use a little bit of whatever mustard you have in the fridge. This is where you can add olives too, if using.

This time we used these fancy pasta shells. We only ever buy this stuff if it's on the $1 stand at the local gourmet market. (This is how we also get loaves of spelt bread, organic bread, random jams and spreads, snack food etc). Any type of pasta will go with this dish. (I usually buy home brand spaghetti or fettuchine from Woolies, or make my own.)

It is finished! For some reason the picture makes it look un-appetising but I assure you it is delicious.

This made enough for 2 people to eat 4 times each (but once we added rice to it and made it into a pie) so I'd say it's a 6 - serving dish. You can freeze it, so if you don't want to eat the same thing four days in a row (or for lunch and tea twice in a row) then you can have it later :) I wouldn't freeze pasta, though.

Enjoy!