On Learning to Make Beef Stroganoff

     Page Forty-Six.
     My very first restaurant job was in 1978. It was at Subconscious.The Subconscious Sandwich Shop was on Taylor Road, here in Cleveland Heights. It was a few years old when I entered the scene and was already on its second owners. I was sixteen and in the eleventh grade at Cleveland Heights High School. It's just as well that I missed out on the fun of the first owner.
     If  I remember the gossip correctly, under the first owner you could buy many things besides submarines. Pot, Quaaludes, acid, coke... all for sale, depending upon who was working that day. When I was hired though, it was owned by two middle-aged French ladies. Mrs C. and Mrs Y (that's really what we called them) were Cleveland Heights matrons who needed something to do during the day so they bought the place (and ran it into the ground, but that's another blog). It was a great job for a high school kid: lots of food, lots of other high school kids (as co-workers and patrons) and not stressful. It was also six blocks from my house so I always walked. I did quit the job once, but they took me back. I consider it my primary high school job, 
     In the twelfth grade, I really got into Stouffer's frozen foods. My favorites were: Chicken Paprikash with Noodles, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Swedish Meatballs with Noodles and Beef Stroganoff with Noodles. One day I was talking to Mrs C. and mentioned, just in passing, my fondness for Stouffer's. She was aghast that I would pay good money for things which I could make at home, which would taste better, be healthier, and ultimately be less expensive. She set out to teach me to make Stroganoff. In retrospect I realize that I had a great teacher in her as she was probably an average-talent French cook. That means by American standards she was a GREAT cook.(One of the secrets to our sub sandwiches was that we sprinkled oregano over the entire thing. This was standard.)
     So a real live French cook taught me how to make Beef Stroganoff when I was seventeen years old. What are the keys to a good product? Always cut against the grain whenever cutting beef chunks for any stew and add the sour cream at the very end. Don't let the sour cream cook, unless of course, you're reheating it the next day. Then it's okay, in fact Stroganoff is better the next day..