Beef stroganoff for a bombed out world

In the survival shooter “Metro: Last Light”, the Russian people are trying to survive a post-atomic era after Moscow is bombed and destroyed. Living in Metro train tunnels and stations, communities form and families try to settle in to living as normally as possible.

When your player character passes through these communities, you can catch glimpses of how residents have had to adapt. A fishing area in a flooded out tunnel are catching what they call “shrimps,” oversized sea creatures that are apparently butchered much like a cow.

A familiar Russian dish is beef stroganoff, and while I didn’t see a bovine in the game anywhere, I’m willing to bet they adapted the “shrimps” to continue to dine on the dish. However, I am not even going to try to make stroganoff with seafood (although that idea does intrigue me…).

Start with a pound of beef chuck roast and break it down into about 2 inch wide hunks of meat, getting rid of any fat or gristle along the way. 

However, before you start cutting, check out the grain of the meat. You want short fibers in your final cuts, which will be about ½ inch thick. Shorter fibers mean easier chewing in the finished dish.

Season the cut meat with some kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and toss in the meat. Let it brown then push it off to the side. Chop up ½ of a medium onion and drop it into the middle. Let it cook for about 3 minutes.

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of flour over the meat/onion mixture and stir, coating everything with the resulting thick gravy. Quickly add 6 ounces of condensed beef broth (about ½ can) and ½ teaspoon of stone ground mustard and bring it all to a boil.

Slap a lid on the skillet and turn down the heat to low (or as low as you can go) to create a simmer. Leave it alone for 1 hour.

After the aroma has wafted through your abode and the timer goes off, add ¼ cup of sour cream, ¼ cup of dry white wine and 4 ounces of sliced button mushrooms. You don’t want big mushrooms for this dish. Use canned mushrooms if you want.

Stir everything together and let it heat (not boil) before serving over egg noodles (my favorite) or rice. Salt and pepper to taste.

I don’t imagine the residents of post-atomic Moscow in “Metro: Last Light” will know the taste of beef anytime soon. But we can enjoy it for them.

Happy eating and gaming!

Ingredients list

• ·        1# beef chuck roast
• ·        ¼ t. salt (kosher if possible)
• ·        ¼ t. fresh ground pepper
• ·        1 T. butter
• ·        ½ medium onion, diced
• ·        2 T. flour
• ·        6 oz. condensed beef broth
• ·        ½ t. stone ground mustard
• ·        ¼ c. sour cream
• ·        ¼ c. dry white wine
• ·        4 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
• ·        Salt & pepper to taste
• ·        Serve over hot rice or egg noodles (prepared)

If you want to know what I thought about the game, you can read a review here.