turkey stroganoff, sort of

I made turkey stroganoff for dinner the other night. I used to make this all the time and then I sort of forgot about it. It shows in this meal above. Tsk, tsk, so many things I did wrong.

The recipe is something I whipped up one night and I've been calling it stroganoff but it's probably not a real stroganoff. I've never cared enough to check or correct that.

I sautee chopped onions and mushrooms in olive oil and then add some ground turkey meat to the pan and get that nice and cooked too. This last time around I used very lean ground breast meat and I think that was where my trouble lay. Next time around I'll get a small package of dark meat and sautee that up with the breast meat. I think this dish needed a little more fat in the animal kind of way. If you know what I mean.

And once the meat is mostly cooked I add a dollop of light sour cream and give it a good stir. I just keep adding more sour cream until the consistency is where I like it (runnier than a cream sauce). Then some herbs and seasoning: crushed garlic, dried thyme, paprika, a bay leaf some salt and pepper. This last go I added some dried oregano and rosemary but probably that wasn't the best idea. It was okay. But not the direction I wanted the flavor to go.

Meanwhile I had a pot of water going for the pasta. Again, I used a pasta that I'd not normally use for this dish. I think it works better with a spiral pasta or a wide noodle like parpadelle or fettucine. Oh well. It still tasted fine. Just not what I was intending. I get the pasta at not-quite-al-dente and drain. I add the pasta to the pan with the meat sauce and stir it up. If the sauce is a little thick, I'll add some of the pasta cooking water which thins it out some but not as much as adding water or milk. The glutens from the pasta will bind the sauce so it stays creamy. And at the end I added a tablespoon of chopped up tomatoes (leftover from something else I was making) and frozen peas.

So, like I said. The dish didn't turn out the way I'd intended or usually make but it was still a good dinner. Served with a side of steamed broccoli.