Brian in the Kitchen Recipes
BRIAN IN THE KITCHEN brought to you by Stittsworth Meats
February 22 2021
Modern Beef Stroganoff
Image From foodnetwork.com
2 cups white wine [editor's note: can substitute cooking wine]
1 cup chicken stock (low-sodium, if store-bought)
1 envelope gelatin powder
1-1/2-pound sirloin steak
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (plus more, if needed)
3/4 pound mushrooms, thickly sliced (or more)
1/2 cup minced shallots
2 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon sweet paprika (not smoked)
2 teaspoons dried tarragon
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 pound egg noodles
In a medium sauce pan, bring wine to a boil, lower heat and reduce to 1 cup, about 10 minutes. Set aside. Reducing the wine makes the resulting sauce taste like it’s cooked longer than it actually has.
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Pour the chicken stock into a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin on top, stir and set aside. Slice the mushrooms—make thickish slices. Some people prefer to quarter the mushrooms but for me, a sliced mushroom browns better. I also prefer the look.
Meanwhile, start a pot of water boiling on the stove for the egg noodles—cook the noodles until al dente and drain them, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water. Set noodles aside.
In a big, heavy skillet, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to medium-high. (For the All-Clad pan, I did not need to go above a medium heat—it is such an efficient pan.) Season steak generously on both sides with salt and pepper. When the pan is thoroughly hot, add the steak. Cook on each side just until it has a lovely sear and releases from the pan (or a bit longer if you do not like rare). Transfer the steak to a warm plate, tent with foil and set aside as you prepare everything else. (It will inevitably cool. Don’t worry, you’ll reheat it later.)
Add 1 more tablespoon oil to the pan (or more, if needed), lower the heat a little and add the sliced mushrooms. Cook, stirring now and then, until they are browned. Not beige. Nicely golden brown. It will take 7 or 8 minutes. That delicious golden flavor is an important part of this dish. When the mushrooms are handsomely browned, add the shallots and two teaspoons of butter. Stir and sauté the shallots until they become translucent—90 seconds to 2 minutes.
Add the paprika, stir again and then add the soy sauce, Worcestershire, dried tarragon and Dijon mustard, and stir until everything is combined and heated through (10 or 15 seconds). Then add the reduced white wine, plus any drippings and juice that are in the steak plate, and stir again. Let it all simmer gently so that any browned bits get incorporated.
Pour the sour cream into the bowl of chicken stock and gelatin and whisk it all together. Then carefully pour, whisking, into the cooking pan. Everything should be nicely mixed together. Thanks to the gelatin, the sour cream will not curdle or break.
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Grate nutmeg over everything, stir again and adjust the salt and pepper. Slide the steak onto the top of the sauce and let it heat gently for a minute. You just want to warm it up. Then transfer it to a cutting board.
Add the cooked noodles to the sauce, stir gently and heat together. If the sauce isn’t saucy enough to generously cloak the noodles, or if it seems too thick, then add some of the reserved pasta cooking water, just a dash at a time, until it is the consistency you prefer. Slice the beef thinly across the grain.
To serve, individually plate the sauce and noodles and artfully arrange a fan of beef on top. Scatter on some parsley, and serve. If you prefer, you may serve this family style—just arrange everything in a big deepish platter, to pass.