Beef Stroganoff

From Russia with Love



A couple of weeks back I got an email from the PR agency representing Golden Gourmet Mushrooms asking if I was interested in sampling their products. Being a mushroom lover I leapt at the chance and shortly thereafter received a box containing four kinds of mushrooms I'd never eaten before: Maitake, White and Brown Beech, and King Trumpet. I started planning my own private mushroom festival, and then developed a staph infection (nothing to do with the mushrooms which I hadn't even opened) and spent the next week in the hospital totally zoned out on massive doses of IV antibiotics. Fortunately there was a brief period of lucidity before the drugs kicked in and I thought to tell my mother to grab the mushrooms before they went bad.

When I returned home a week later the mushrooms she didn't take were still good. In fact one package of White Beech mushrooms was good three weeks after I received them. I have never, in my entire life, seen mushrooms keep for such a long period of time. However, I didn't get to try everything I'd been sent and the company has been kind enough to send me another sampler - so I'm back to planning my mushroom festival again. In the meantime, though, I did try the White and Brown Beech mushrooms both raw and in two dishes. They have an oddly sweet flavor raw and would be excellent in a salad, but they cook to that savory goodness we all associate with mushrooms.

I made a sausage and mushroom pilaf with one batch and Beef Stroganoff with another. I pan on trying them in my Mushroom Bisque and a Mushroom Strudel, but I thought I'd share my recipe for stroganoff now. It doesn't require the mushrooms from Golden Gourmet, but they work beautifully and I really like their appearance in the dish.

Beef Stroganoff
Serves 6.

1 1/2 lb sirloin steak
2 - 3 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 sm onion - diced
1 lb mushrooms - halved or quartered if using white button mushrooms
2 tsp dried tarragon or 2 tbsp minced fresh
1 tsp dried dill or 1 tbsp minced fresh
1 c red wine
1/2 c water
1 tbsp veal demiglace
1 1/2 c sour cream
1 lb egg noodles

Freeze steak for 1 1/2 hours, then slice vey thin across the grain. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook noodles according to package directions. When done, drain and add butter and salt to taste. Meanwhile…

Heat oil in a large, sauté pan over medium-high. Quickly brown steak in two or three batches, reserving browned meat on a plate.

Reduce heat to medium. add a bit more oil if needed and cook onions, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. Cook another 4 minutes, stirring. Increase heat to medium-high, add wine and herbs and reduce to 1/2 cup. Add water, demiglace (stirring to dissolve), and steak and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in sour cream and serve over noodles.

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