Tricia's Week Nine Recipe: Hamburger Stroganoff

I was looking for a few recipes, and found myself on the Food Network website.  They, like Pillsbury, have a good search engine.  You can search a word, for me it was 'creole' and then narrow by lots of different things.  Both week 9 and week 10's recipes are influenced by this search.  I've made stroganoff before, so that is not the new part of this recipe.  The new part of this recipe is actually the 'essence' seasoning which I mixed up.  You can find both the seasoning and the stroganoff here.

Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Dinner in a Skillet

 Ingredients

• 1/2 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I skipped this)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon Essence, recipe follows (I doubled this, but skipped the salt above)
• 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup chopped yellow onions (like most recipes, we skipped this. because the Essence had onion in it already, we added a scosh more Essence on top of the above and ignored the onion component)
• 1 cup sliced white button mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 pound small elbow macaroni or wide egg noodles, cooked (we used 1/2 pound)
• 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Grated white Cheddar, optional
• Chopped parsley, for garnish

Directions

Season beef with Essence and salt and pepper. (I doubled the Essence and skipped the salt) In a large cast iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the seasoned beef and cook, stirring, until well browned and all pink has disappeared. Drain off any excess oil in the skillet.

Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring until the mushrooms have released their juices, about 2 minutes. Add the macaroni (or egg noodles), beef broth and sour cream. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens slightly, 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and spoon the mixture onto 2 large plates. Sprinkle each portion with the cheese, if desired, and chopped parsley and serve immediately.

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

 I would definitely make this version of stroganoff again.  I'm forever playing with stroganoff recipes, but this seasoning (especially doubling the amount and leaving out the salt) makes this a bit spicy and quite good.  I would make twice the sauce (though leave the meat the same) since we made twice the noodles to go with it.  I made my Essence with a bit extra cayenne pepper, and wasn't very exact w/ my measuring, but I'm quite happy with it.  You will see it again, in week 10's recipe.