Beef Stroganoff
The genius of Beef Stroganoff is that you get something that looks and smells like a stew, but fast enough to be made after work, and with the surprise flourish of tender, rare strips of steak instead of the expected (though also good) flavor and texture of stewed beef. This trick requires a tender cut of steak - it works best with loin cuts (e.g., filet, strip). (Rib would work, but it's usually cut for roasts, and even pricier.) You could economize by using chuck instead of loin and braising it in the oven for a couple hours, but at that point you might as well just make stew.
The part where you cook the steak strips in small batches is totally key - if you try to fake it by cooking bigger batches, you don't get the big payoff. Consequently, unlike a stew, this recipe scales in roughly linear time with its size - more than a few pounds of steak gets tedious. (The recipe is scaled to 1 lb.)
- 1 or more lbs steak - all quantities are given relative to one pound of steak.
- 1/2 lb or more criminis (or failing that, normal button mushrooms) (sliced thick)
- 1 onion (diced fine)
- a few cloves of garlic (minced)
- fresh dill (dried dill is made of fail) (minced, leaves only)
- a few nonpareil capers (minced)
- thyme
- tomato paste
- anchovy paste
- dry vermouth (or dry white wine)
- sour cream (Tofutti's `Better than Sour Cream' is amazingly convincing)
- 1 c beef bone stock (or condensed beef broth, if that's what you've got)
- flour
- black pepper
- neutral-tasting oil (olive oil has too strong a flavor here)
- rice and/or egg noodles
- Start the rice if you're serving with rice (if you have a rice cooker you can put this off a bit).
- Slice the steak thin across the grain - fairly thin, 1/8 - 1/4 inch. (This is easier if it's slightly frozen)
- Add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of neutral oil (again, for each pound of meat), and mix to coat the steak.
- Saute the steak in small batches of 1/4 to 1/3 pound over high heat. The pan should be hot enough that the slices brown nicely in a couple of minutes, but they should still ooze red juice when you pull them out. Don't overcook them - loin cooked much past medium is flavorless and has the texture of chalk. Part of the goal here is to develop plenty of `fond' (brown (not black) crusty bits) in the pan). Set the steak aside in a dish large enough that the strips don't overcook in each other's heat.
- As soon as the last batch of steak comes off, set the heat low so the fond doesn't burn, and add 2 Tbspn neutral oil, 1.5 Tbspn flour, and a fair pinch of baking soda to the pan. (The free hyroxides in the soda help hugely with the Maillard reaction that browns the flour and onions.) Scrape the pan continuously with a wooden spatula, and cook the flour until it stops bubbling and starts smelling a bit like bread. You may need to slowly turn the heat back up a bit, but be patient.
- Add a finely-diced onion and 1/4 tsp of anchovy paste. Brown well over medium heat, stirring often.
- Set lots of hot water to boil if you're serving with egg noodles (pasta water should taste about as salty as blood), and/or start a rice cooker.
- Add the criminis (thickly sliced), a few cloves of garlic (minced), a few nonpareil capers (minced), 1 tsp of tomato paste, a small pinch of thyme, 1/4 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth, and whatever juice has come off of the steak. Cover for a minute or two, until the mushrooms start to soften, then uncover, and cook until the mushrooms have stopped giving up juice and the entire thing has started to thicken up again.
- Add a cup of beef stock.
- Simmer and thicken until it's at about the thickness of light cream. It should coat a wooden spoon, but quite thinly - it thickens a lot as it cools, especially with a real stock. You can hold it here for a little while to make salad, but don't let the steak congeal.
- Lower the heat. From here on, it's important not to let it boil. (A few bubbles is okay, but a steady boil will break the sauce.)
- Add a few stalks worth of minced dill (leaves only please - the stalks are tough and flavorless).
- Stir in 2/3 cup sour cream (or a lactose-free substitute). Bring it back to a low simmer. (Don't let it boil!).
- Grind in plenty of black pepper. Salt to taste.
- Stir in the steak. Heat for a minute, just to make sure everything is warmed through.
- Serve over rice or noodles. Get it on the table fast - as soon as you add the steak, you restart the cooking process in your nice rare steak strips.
Modifications:
- If you're not going to eat everything at once, it makes sense to only cook the steak and sour cream that you're going to eat right then. If you chill and reheat it then the steak will overcook and the sauce will break.
- This recipe works surprisingly well as a vegetarian dish without the beef, beef stock, and anchovy paste. (Add more mushrooms and veggie broth.)
The part where you cook the steak strips in small batches is totally key - if you try to fake it by cooking bigger batches, you don't get the big payoff. Consequently, unlike a stew, this recipe scales in roughly linear time with its size - more than a few pounds of steak gets tedious. (The recipe is scaled to 1 lb.)
- 1 or more lbs steak - all quantities are given relative to one pound of steak.
- 1/2 lb or more criminis (or failing that, normal button mushrooms) (sliced thick)
- 1 onion (diced fine)
- a few cloves of garlic (minced)
- fresh dill (dried dill is made of fail) (minced, leaves only)
- a few nonpareil capers (minced)
- thyme
- tomato paste
- anchovy paste
- dry vermouth (or dry white wine)
- sour cream (Tofutti's `Better than Sour Cream' is amazingly convincing)
- 1 c beef bone stock (or condensed beef broth, if that's what you've got)
- flour
- black pepper
- neutral-tasting oil (olive oil has too strong a flavor here)
- rice and/or egg noodles
- Start the rice if you're serving with rice (if you have a rice cooker you can put this off a bit).
- Slice the steak thin across the grain - fairly thin, 1/8 - 1/4 inch. (This is easier if it's slightly frozen)
- Add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of neutral oil (again, for each pound of meat), and mix to coat the steak.
- Saute the steak in small batches of 1/4 to 1/3 pound over high heat. The pan should be hot enough that the slices brown nicely in a couple of minutes, but they should still ooze red juice when you pull them out. Don't overcook them - loin cooked much past medium is flavorless and has the texture of chalk. Part of the goal here is to develop plenty of `fond' (brown (not black) crusty bits) in the pan). Set the steak aside in a dish large enough that the strips don't overcook in each other's heat.
- As soon as the last batch of steak comes off, set the heat low so the fond doesn't burn, and add 2 Tbspn neutral oil, 1.5 Tbspn flour, and a fair pinch of baking soda to the pan. (The free hyroxides in the soda help hugely with the Maillard reaction that browns the flour and onions.) Scrape the pan continuously with a wooden spatula, and cook the flour until it stops bubbling and starts smelling a bit like bread. You may need to slowly turn the heat back up a bit, but be patient.
- Add a finely-diced onion and 1/4 tsp of anchovy paste. Brown well over medium heat, stirring often.
- Set lots of hot water to boil if you're serving with egg noodles (pasta water should taste about as salty as blood), and/or start a rice cooker.
- Add the criminis (thickly sliced), a few cloves of garlic (minced), a few nonpareil capers (minced), 1 tsp of tomato paste, a small pinch of thyme, 1/4 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth, and whatever juice has come off of the steak. Cover for a minute or two, until the mushrooms start to soften, then uncover, and cook until the mushrooms have stopped giving up juice and the entire thing has started to thicken up again.
- Add a cup of beef stock.
- Simmer and thicken until it's at about the thickness of light cream. It should coat a wooden spoon, but quite thinly - it thickens a lot as it cools, especially with a real stock. You can hold it here for a little while to make salad, but don't let the steak congeal.
- Lower the heat. From here on, it's important not to let it boil. (A few bubbles is okay, but a steady boil will break the sauce.)
- Add a few stalks worth of minced dill (leaves only please - the stalks are tough and flavorless).
- Stir in 2/3 cup sour cream (or a lactose-free substitute). Bring it back to a low simmer. (Don't let it boil!).
- Grind in plenty of black pepper. Salt to taste.
- Stir in the steak. Heat for a minute, just to make sure everything is warmed through.
- Serve over rice or noodles. Get it on the table fast - as soon as you add the steak, you restart the cooking process in your nice rare steak strips.
Modifications:
- If you're not going to eat everything at once, it makes sense to only cook the steak and sour cream that you're going to eat right then. If you chill and reheat it then the steak will overcook and the sauce will break.
- This recipe works surprisingly well as a vegetarian dish without the beef, beef stock, and anchovy paste. (Add more mushrooms and veggie broth.)