Homegrown Science Experiment

January 23, 2011

I am sure that you, dear reader, in some point of your life have had the experience of finding a "science experiment" in your home.

You know what I mean. I won't go into details, but we all have found the 6-week old pizza slice under the couch or that brie that "went missing" and re-emerged in grotesque form in the back of the fridge. Many a parent and college student has had this experience.

We are surrounded by the fungus among us. In the immortal words of Dr. Frank Austin, it's a microbial jungle out there. Millions of spores invade our homes every day. Some of them are good and some of them are bad. Many people have dreadful allergies due to these floating reproductive parts, or spores. Some of them, such as the wild yeasts in San Francisco, are quite useful.

Today I am going to share with you a fantastic "science experiment" that I conducted recently.

Fear not, for this experiment was delicious!

I was searching for a weird, quirky and fun Christmas gift for members of my family. I hit the myco-jackpot when I stumbled upon Back to the Roots, a company in Oakland, California.

They specialize in home mushroom garden kits. These kits are easy to use, and made from composted coffee grounds mixed with oyster mushroom spores. You can grow your own gourmet mushrooms at home in as little as 10 days. They also have a program for donating mushroom garden kits to schools and science education centers.

Here are the pictures of my kit at day 8 and day 14:

The fruits of our experiment made us want to eat something delicious and unhealthy:

Venison Stroganoff

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3-6 oz mushrooms, such as oyster, portobello, sliced

1 pound beef stew meat OR

1 pound venison cube steak, sliced into 1/2 inch wide strips

1 medium onion, diced

6-8 tablespoons flour for dredging the meat

1 tablespoon flour for the roux

1 tablespoon butter, unsalted

2-6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried or fresh thyme

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/4 cup sour cream (use non-fat if you wish)

2 cups low fat, low sodium beef stock, homemade is best

1 cup rice or

8 oz egg noodles, cooked per package instructions

Method:

Place 2 tablespoons oil into a saute pan on medium-high heat.

Sautee the onions and mushrooms until tender. Set aside.

In a dutch oven with high sides and a lid:

Heat 2-4 tablespoons of oil on high heat.

In bowl, mix together 1/2 of the salt and pepper, and 1/2 of the flour. Coat the stew meat or strips of venison in the flour mixture, and fry until cooked through and browned.

Drain the meat on paper towels and set aside.

Remove excess oil from this frying vessel, put heat on medium.

Add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour. Cook until a dark blonde color (roux).

Then, de-glaze with 1 cup beef broth.

Scrape up all the bits on the bottom of the pan, and then decrease heat to a simmer.

Add the tomato paste, cooked mushrooms/onions, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper and cooked meat and stir to combine.

Allow to reduce/simmer for 10-15 minutes with the lid cracked.

Add broth as needed for a thicker/thinner gravy.

Once at desired consistency, turn off the heat and slowly stir in the sour cream.

* If you realize at the end of cooking that need to add a thickener, I always recommend arrowroot powder. 1/2 teaspoon dissolved in 1 teaspoon cold water. Stir into your finished dish slowly, it will thicken quickly. It's tasteless and it won't clump like wheat flour!

Serve over rice or egg noodles.

We added chopped flat leaf parsley on top to make it pretty, and I like the flavor of fresh parsley.

MMM Science is tasty!