Last Saturday when J and I were at Costco he convinced me to purchase one of their larger sized containers of sour cream. We don’t go through that much sour cream but with Fajitas on the menu I agreed. Now I am finding myself trying to come up with recipes that require sour cream. I am not much of a baker and most recipes are for cakes and other breads. J and I also don’t really eat much dessert either so a cake would probably just go bad.

I remembered my mom making a dish called Stroganoff when were younger that does involve sour cream. It’s basically beef, mushroom gravy, and sour cream over egg noodles. I can’t really remember liking all that much when I was younger, probably because it resembles some sort of brown slop but it has since turned into comfort food and I really enjoy it. My mom used to make it with strips of steak but I had ground beef on hand and used that instead making a meatball stroganoff. YUM!!

I googled a few recipes and there was a lot of variation so I took ideas from a few of them to make a stroganoff that tasted the most like my moms. I probably should have just asked her for her recipe. Here is my rendition of a Meat Ball Stroganoff.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground chuck
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• A dash of Mrs dash
• 1/2 cup water

For the sauce

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ onion chopped
• ½ pound ( I don’t have a scale so approx 10-15 white mushrooms, thinly sliced (eye ball the amount)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1-2 cups chicken stock ( I ended up adding some beef bouillon to it as well)
• 1-2 springs of fresh thyme
• ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Couple dashes of hot sauce
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

You will either flour or cornstarch to thicken sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the chuck, chopped onion, the garlic, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, egg yolks, oregano, basil, mrs dash, fresh parsley and water in a large bowl. Mix well and form meatballs that measure about 1-inch in diameter. Place meatballs on a parchment lined baking sheet and cook for approx 20 min. (you could also fry these but I like the oven method because they cook evenly and stay moist). You really could add or subtract anything in the meatball mixture and make them your own, these are just flavors I like.

While meatballs are cooking heat a large skillet with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onions, mushrooms and cook, stirring often for about 5-10 min, until the liquid they give off has evaporated. Pour in the white wine, increase the heat to high, and boil until almost all the liquid they give off has evaporated. Pour in the stock, full springs of thyme, Worcestershire, Dijon, hot sauce and bring to a boil.

**At this point you can add 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch to your sour cream and slowly add it to your sauce. I didn’t add the sour cream to my sauce. I thickened the sauce by combining flour to cold water and whisking until dissolved and pouring that into the sauce letting it boil until thickened.

Remove thyme sprigs and add the meatballs. Serve over cooked egg noodles and a dollop of sour cream

Yummy!!