Fish Stew One Night, Beef Stroganoff The Next

I try to make dinner every week night so that we don't waste money eating out all the time, although the thought of it is very tempting because I always have to endure a looooong commute home. Bleh :(

Monday night I made Fish Stew (from Simply Recipes again)

Elise says that the most important ingredient to the Fish Stew is clam juice... and when I read it, I was like, ehh, really?! Finding it at the supermaket was adventurous, and after circling the place twice, we finally asked someone. I thought it was a refrigerated item next to the fish counter, but it turned out to be with the tuna cans. OK, cool. When I opened it, I thought I was going to make my kitchen reek of clam juice, but there was practically no smell to it. I wasn't brave enough to try it on it's own though.

I also replaced parsley with cilantro because, for some weird reason, I couldn't find parsley at the Farmer's Market.

I used pinot grigio for the white wine. That was yummy... in the soup and to drink on the side (while cooking, hehe!)

For the fish, I used 7 pieces of dove sole fish. I'm not sure if it's because I left it in the freezer too long or this fish just smells, but the fish smelled. I would probably choose to use another white fish next time. I'm glad the ingredients in the soup covered up the fish stank.


I did exactly what the recipe asked for - cook the onions, garlic, and cilantro. Add clam juice, wine, then fish. So far so good!

I covered the pot and let it cook and boil for about 8 minutes.

Our dinner - fish stew, romaine lettus with kidney beans, cheese, and italian dressing, and drank the rest of the pinot grigio!






























Tuesday night I made Beef Stroganoff (also from Simply Recipes - love it!)


The first thing I realized is that this recipe asks for A LOT of butter (6 TBSP total), so always changing things on my own, I decided to use OO and just a little chunk of butter. Gotta add the butter for taste!

After cooking the meat in the OO and butter, use the pan drippings to cook the onions. Smells so good!



A few more ingredients waiting to go into the pot.

After the onions were sauteed, take it out of the pot and add it to the plate of beef, and add the mushrooms to the hot pot. The recipe asked for another 3 TBSP of butter, but I just added OO this time. Trying to cut down some fat! I sprinkled nutmeg and basil (substituted for tarrgon) to the cooking mushrooms. You can instantly smell the spices goodness.

I then turned the heat to low, and added the sour cream. I put the meat and onions back in the pot. At first when I tasted this concoction, I was like, ehhh, so sour. So I added salt... still sour... more salt... somewhat sour... more salt... then yum! I realized salt is very important to make this sauce taste right.

I couldn't wait to eat it! I've only had beef stroganoff as frozen dinners (sad eh?) so I was anxious to make a good fresh one! I used linguini and boiled some broccoli and green beans.

The husband and I loved it!