Stroganoff Faceoff: Part II

By now, you've enjoyed the delicious, full-fat version of beef stroganoff. You have, right? I know my mother-in-law made stroganoff for my father- in-law last week, and they really liked it! If you haven't, go here first. You owe it to Helen Corbitt. And yourself.

Tonight I told Brent that I was going to make the healthy version of beef stroganoff. He pleaded, "I don't care what you wrote on the blog. Can't you just make the regular version?" No, Brent. I owe it to my two blog readers. I must press on and make the healthy version for the sake of science!

So I did. I will withold my opinions until the end. Here's how it went down:

Healthy Beef Stroganoff
from Cooking Light

Combine 8 oz. low fat sour cream with 3T tomato paste and 1 t. Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl.

Saute 1 medium onion in 1 T. butter.
Cut 1-2 lb. sirloin into thin strips and toss in a Ziploc bag with 1/2 c. flour, 1 t. salt, and 1/4 t. pepper. Add floured beef to pan on high heat.

Sear beef until browned on all sides.

Add 14 oz. beef broth and 2 c. sliced mushrooms. Cover pan and simmer for 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.

Remove from heat and stir in sour cream mixture. I can't lie. At this point, it was VERY runny, so I added about 1/4 cup flour to help thicken it up a bit.Serve over egg noodles with parsely.

The judges (Brent & I) have filled our plates and cast our votes. Drumroll please.

The results of the stroganoff faceoff are...

Version #1 wins. Helen Corbitt rules! Fat = Flavor. No way around it.

The healthier version was OK, but it was definitely not delicious. I had high hopes at first. I liked the flouring of the meat and the sauteing of the onions in butter. It was looking really good. I added the beef broth, and it thickened right up to a gravy consistency. But then I added the sour cream mixture. Epic fail. The sauce was a reddish brown due to the tomato paste. I usually love tomato paste because it adds a rich, savory flavor to most dishes. But here I didn't really like it. Though the sour cream did not curdle, it was not creamy AT ALL. If you look closely at the picture at the top of the post, you can see little white dots - that's the sour cream. It didn't mix in and thicken up, it just kind of sat there. As a result, the sauce was not nearly thick enough. The Worcestershire sauce added a nice flavor, but I have to say that I prefer the nutmeg in the original version.

Maybe I'm biased and maybe I just love creamy comfort food (who doesn't?), but I'm going to have to declare Helen Corbitt the winner of this throwdown. Brent said it best when he said of the healthy version, "Well, it's OK, but I'm not going to beg for it. But the real version... when can we have that again?"

So there you have it. Work out a little extra and eat the good stuff. Do it and don't look back!