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.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | beef stroganoff | main-dish

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Chicken Stroganoff

Variations



Supposedly Beef Stroganoff was created by a chef in Saint Petersburg for a culinary competition held in the 1890s. Although the dish was almost certainly named for Count Paul Stroganoff, a Russian noble and diplomat, Larousse Gastronomique points out that similar dishes were described in the 18th century. However, it also states that the particular version named Stroganoff was created by Charles Briere.

On the other hand:

"It is doubtful that Beef Stroganoff was [Count Stroganoff's] or his chef's invention since the recipe was included in the 1871 edition of the Molokhovets cookbook...which predates his fame as a gourmet. Not a new recipe, by the way, but a refined version of an even older Russian recipe, it had probably beenin the family for some years and became well known through Pavel Stroganoff's love of entertaining." — The Art of Russian Cuisine by Anne Volokh with Mavis Manus, Macmillan, 1983

A recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation. ~ Madame Jehane Benoit

The dish didn't appear in American cookbooks until 1930. And according to Wikipedia, after the fall of Imperial Russia, the recipe was popular in Chinese hotels and restaurants before the start of the Second World War. Russian and Chinese immigrants, as well as U.S. servicemen stationed in pre-socialist China, brought several variants of the dish to the United States, which may account for its popularity during the 1950s.

As is usual with dishes that become popular, there was a rush to the lowest common denominator and I'm proud to have done my part in dragging it through the dust.

Seriously, though, I use the name "Stroganoff" advisedly in this instance. I don't claim that this is a version of the classic dish, but rather a related effort that is easy to make, is ready in an hour, and is delicious left over.

Chicken Stroganoff
Serves 6.

1 lb chicken tenders — but into 1 inch lengths
1 tbsp oil
1 c rice
1/2 lb musrooms — sliced
1 tsp dried thyme — separated
1 tbsp butter
1/2 ea lg onions — diced
1 clove garlic — minced
3 c chicken stock — separated
1/2 c vermouth
salt and black pepper
1 c sour cream

Make rice using 2 cups of chicken stock and 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. Set aside.

Add mushrooms to a dry 10" sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle with salt, and cook, stirring frequently until mushrooms begin to brown. Add 1/2 teaspoon thyme and 1 tbsp butter. Cook until well-browned. Put mushrooms on a plate and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium and add onions (you may need to add a bit more butter or oil). Saute, stirring occasionally until they just begin to brown. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add to plate with mushrooms.

Add 2 tablespoons oil and increase heat to medium-high. Brown chicken in two batches. When last batch is browned add vermouth and reduce by half, scraping up fond. Add remaining chicken stock and reserved vegetables. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer 15 minutes. Uncover, add rice and sour cream.

Technorati: Food | recipe | chicken | stroganoff

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