Beef Stroganoff with Gnocchi

Beef Stroganoff was part of many a 70's kitchen repertoire and I think it's Russian although I've also suspected it may simply be a complete fabrication -made as part of a drive to culinary globalisation. It is in fact Russian and was made by Serge Stroganoff for Catherine the Great as a way of syncretizing French and Russian food. There you go.

This was an off the cuff supermarket decision after my promised attempt at a chick-pea curry was thwarted by forgetting to soak them again. The recipe that follows is a little compromised by my poor memory.

Topside steak thinly sliced and dusted with flour; chopped onion; butter. Onion goes in first and softened, followed by the beef, and then some sliced button mushrooms. When the beef is nearly cooked add a tablespoon of tomato paste and half a cup of beef stock. Once heated through, in goes a cup sour cream. well it would have gone in if I hadn't bought normal cream by mistake. This can't be the way to do it but I chucked a bit of lemon juice in the cream and it seemed to work. Heated through and peppered to taste.

Usually served with fettucine but I thought gnocchi would make a nice change and it did.

A neighbour appeared at my door to come good on a promise to get me a Kryptonics tape. I was chuffed and asked him to join us for dinner. The Kryptonics were a Perth band in the mid-Eighties and provided one of those rare brain is melting with how good this is type music. The song I've been hunting for years was "Oedipus Complex" which is burnt on my brain as

Baby [kwang kang] I'm not into bestiality,
but baby [kwang kang] you can be my sacred cow.

How did this band vanish of the face of the earth? A good chance for recommending the Spin exhibition at the Western Australian Museum. May write about it later.