Paula Deen's Solution for a Dinner Dilemma

Beef Stroganoff + 2007 Big House Red: 5/5

After a long day at work, the last thing anyone wants to do is think of what to make for dinner, go to the grocery store, and then come back to slave over a stove. Well of course there are slow cooker recipes, fast food, or going out to eat, but what if you want something homemade, and you want it now?

My recommendation, pal up with a food network friend. On the website, www.foodnetwork.com, you can spend a couple minutes with your favorite T.V. personality— Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, or my personal favorite, Paula Deen. In a few short minutes you will be well on your way to a dinner divine.

So after a full day of conference room hall monitoring (sounds glamourous, right?) I turned to my friend Paula for some dinner decisiveness. Her suggestion, Beef Stroganoff. Now when it comes to online recipes, read reviews. If there is something wrong with the recipe, usually some suggestions will pop up, the rating will be poor, or reviewers will use lots of exclamation points. This, !!!!!!! usually = bad.

For my dinner decision, Paula Deen’s Beef Stroganoff had five stars and 127 comments and reviews, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/beef-stroganoff-recipe/index.html, so I felt pretty confident that Michael and I were in for a treat.

My mom tried making beef stroganoff when I was younger, probably 10 years old. I can remember coming to our golden wheat wooden table to a plate of concrete over noodles. My dog, rubbing his snotty nose across the screen, pacing in an anxious walk, staring at my plate. Fit for a dog, I thought.

“What is this mom?” I asked, grabbing my fork and scrapping through the gray stuff to get to the noodles.

“It’s beef stroganoff, you’ve never had it. You’ll like it.” There was an unsure tone in her voice. She looked around the table at my brother, my dad, and me, seeing our contorted faces and unsure approval.

I can’t really remember if it was good or not, but I remember I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get over the dirty meat sauce, the smell of onions, and the slimy texture of the mushrooms. To this day, the dish hadn’t really ranked high on my list.

Then came Paula. After I sauteed the beef in butter and olive oil and used the drippings for the onions and mushrooms, I was immediately reminded of burgers with caramelized onions and mushrooms. When I added the soups, the smell of simmering beef with creamy mushrooms coated me from head to toe, suddenly stroganoff wasn’t sounding so bad.

To find a wine I did some further research online, www.vinessetoday.com had a couple of suggestions. While beef calls for red wine, cream base sauces crave white. On the other hand, the dish’s complexity calls for a complex wine. Solution? A blend, such as a Syrah-Grenache. Blending wines provides complexity and depth to accompany multiple flavors, in this case, a rich and creamy sauce and fatty beef.

Michael and I stumbled upon an interesting wine called Big House Red, a 2007 blend of Viz Syrah, Tannet, Tempranillo, Petite Sirah, Touriga, Malbec, Aglianico, Nero d’Avola, Mourvédre, Grenache, Petite Verdot, and Montepulciano. If that wasn’t complex enough for the dish, I don’t know what would be.

As I sunk my fork into the first bite, my mouth watered. The grayish-brown sauce, looked much more appetizing than my 10 year old memory. Coating my palate, the rich buttery noodles, tip toed around the bits of beef, onion, and mushrooms, as the sauce provided a glue to hold everything together. The sour cream gave the dish an unexpected zip, while the creamy mushroom soup provided depth, and succulent flavor. A truly complex dish. Would the wine be up for the challenge?

With a strong smell of jam and toasted oak, the nose was upfront and strong. Revealing subtle tannins, a swirl of the wine lightly coated the sides of the glass. After checking the deep magenta color, I let the wine coat my palate. With a lighter body, and higher alcohol concentration, the wine is definitely dangerous. Over all, the wine had a medium body, and didn’t linger long at the finish.

Together, both the stroganoff and the wine provided the perfect balance of tannin, fruit, beef, and cream. With each fork full and swig of the wine, my palate was overcome with a flavor ambush. The saltiness of the dish played well with the acidity of the wine, and the jammy smells of the wine brought out the subtly in the beef.

Luckily for me, I was exhausted, so after just a glass of wine, I was ready for bed, but that didn’t stop Michael and I from having a little more stroganoff. Luckily this wasn’t a repeat of childhood. Now, for me, stroganoff means delicious. Thank you Paula Deen for another perfect pair.