“When I entertain formally, it’s a place-card affair,” said Natalie Wood in 1966. She’d just finished filming Penelope. And was between her two marriages to Robert Wagner. Talking to The Press Courier, she added: “I seem to do most of my cooking on boats… I often whip up eggs ranchero.” In 1981, Natalie Wood drowned when she fell from a boat.
At her Bel Air mansion, Wood made splendid dinners served in the buffet fashion. There were tiny quiche lorraine, piroshki and pelmeny. And, of course, there was her famous beef stroganoff:
2lbs boneless sirloin, cut in strips 2ins long by 1/2 in/ wide
2 tsps salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
7 tbsps. butter
1 tbsp flour
2 cups beef stock (or canned diluted bouillon)
11/2 tbspns. tomato paste
4 tbspns sour cream
1 cup thinly sliced white onion
3 cups thinly sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup dry white win (optional)
1. Season Meat; let stand 2 hours in cool place
2. Melt 2 tbsps butter in skillet, stir in flour, cook over low heat 1 minute. stirring. Gradually add beef stock, cook until mixture starts to thicken. Add tomato paste; simmer gentle 5 minutes, stirring.
3. Brown beef in 3 tbsps. butter in separate pan. Cook onion in 2 tbsps. butter in separate pan until golden. Add mushrooms to to onions, cook gently.
4. Add meat, onion, mushrooms to to tomato mixture. Heat gently 30 mins. in top of a double boiler,. Add sour cream, wine, heat gently. Service immeditely with hot fluffy rice or buttered cooked noodles. Serves 6.
Spotter: Rob Baker
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