Cooking: Beef Stroganoff

The weather here in Northern California has finally dipped to a low of 59 degrees to a high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Since I was no longer sweltering and was craving something beefy in our meal rotation, I cooked beef stroganoff. My mise en place was comprised of beef tips or chuck beef cut into 1" cubes, chopped yellow and red onion, sliced crimini mushrooms, sour cream, butter, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, beef bone broth, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, chopped scallion, chives, and parsley. Oh and my glass of Chardonnay to deglaze the pan after browning the meat.

First I seared the beef chunks in olive oil (turn the burner on high and then turn the burner down to medium high)and continued to sauté them until they were caramelized or browned on one or two sides. I then removed the beef from the grease and set them aside. I added a bit of butter to the cast iron and sautéed the aromatics in the fat on that medium high heat. Once the onions were softened and the garlic cooked a bit down, I turned down the heat to medium and threw the rest of my wine to deglaze the pan of the fond and put the reserved beef back into the pan. I next poured some beef broth into the pan to prevent burning as well as the Worcestershire and soy sauces and Dijon mustard and let the meat and vegetables simmer in this sauce for a good 35 to 40 minutes on medium high to medium heat to further braise the beef.

All throughout the cooking of the stroganoff, I kept tasting and adding broth and maybe more soy sauce or Worcestershire for that umami sensation and consolidating flavors as as the sauce cooked and evaporated. I anticipated 30 more minutes of simmering to tenderize the beef and added the sliced crimini and turned up the heat back to medium high and stirred.

Even after simmering in the beef broth for a good thirty minutes, the mushrooms added more moisture even as I was trying to drive it off. And so I put a tablespoon of the beef sauce into a cup and mixed a couple teaspoons of corn starch before incorporating it back into the sauce. Finally after cooking for what seemed an ever such a long time, the sauce looked thick enough to be called a gravy.

I had looked for flat egg noodles at Trader Joe's which it didn't have, and so I settled for cooking rotini pasta instead. And then I scattered the chopped scallion, chives, and parsley atop the finished stroganoff.

And instead of incorporating the cooked pasta into the stroganoff, I kept it separate to spoon the stroganoff on top and to prevent the noodles from getting soft or mushy. I like my noodles al dente. I had posted these pics on a Facebook group called Quarantine Cooking, and an Irishman commented that he didn't understand us Americans eating stroganoff with noodles as he prefers rosemary roasted potatoes or garlic toast to sop up the sauce and that he thought noodles would be too soft for him. And so textures are all a matter of preference because I could see liking beef stroganoff on mashed potatoes or maybe even polenta with a little bit of Parmesan and butter. In any case, I now have a yummy leftover in the fridge for the hubs to eat if I should ever instead crave sushi or good Japanese ramen.