“When I entertain formally, it’s a place-card affair,” said Natalie Wood in 1966. She’d just finished filming Penelope. She was between her two marriages to Robert Wagner. Talking to The Press Courier, Wood 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.
Whilst living at her Bel Air mansion, Wood did make splendid dinners served in the buffet fashion. There were tiny quiche lorraine, piroshki and pelmeny. And 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.
For reason you can discover, she added no champagne.
Spotter: Rob Baker
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