Scratch Made Beef Stroganoff Recipe

This is the first recipe in Granite, the cookbook I wrote for my family for Christmas. I had beef stroganoff for the first time at my grandma and grandpa's house during a weeknight family dinner. I remember the broad strips of beef with the creamy sauce, and I think it was also my first time having mushrooms and not being disgusted by them. After that, I always requested the Hamburger Helper version when my mom would grocery shop. Something about the combo of beef, mushrooms, and sour cream that's a pure umami bomb.

For this recipe, I knew I wanted to elevate it with a better cut of beef than is typically used and make everything from scratch including the noodles, but I still wanted to keep it quick and easy enough to make it obtainable as a weeknight meal. Just a fair warning that once you have fresh noodles, nothing will ever be the same. Toast can't never be bread again. I will probably do a more in-depth post about noodles from scratch at some point, because even though it's such a simple recipe and process once you get the hang of it, there's so much I can say about it.


Scratch Made Beef Stroganoff
Time: 45 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb. boneless steak, NY strip or sirloin

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 large yellow onion

10 oz mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons flour

3 cups beef stock

3 tablespoons heavy cream

½ cup sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

4 cups cooked egg noodles (about 2 cups dry)

1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped


30 minutes before you start cooking, remove steak from refrigerator, salt both sides, and let sit at room temperature. Pat dry before searing.

Heat olive oil and butter in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Sear steak 2 minutes per side, then transfer to a cutting board. Let rest for 5 minutes. Slice into thin strips and trim excess fat.

Slice onion and mushrooms, and sweat in the pan drippings over medium heat with a dash of salt until onions are translucent. Add garlic and beef strips, and continue cooking just until garlic is fragrant (about 1 minute). Stir in flour, and let cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in beef stock gradually, bringing to a gentle boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

In the last minute of cooking time, increase heat to medium. Combine heavy cream and sour cream in a separate bowl. Gradually whisk into the beef mixture. Once mixture comes back to a gentle boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Toss in noodles, and cook with sauce for 5 minutes. Garnish with parsley.


The Details

Need a little more info? Let's get into the details.

When selecting a cut of beef, go for a boneless portion cut from the loin, like a sirloin, ribeye, New York strip, even from the tenderloin. This will give the best flavor, and since we're not simmering for hours to break down the collagen and connecting tissues in the meat, we want to go for something that naturally is a lesser used portion of the cow, and thus softer piece of meat than the shoulder, chuck, or round that's typically used for a longer cooking recipe. Look for the fat to be evenly marbled throughout the meat, and get a cut that's about 1-1.5" thick in order to get a good ratio of seared surface to juicy tender flesh once sliced.

With the few minutes of searing time, the steak will still be raw on the inside. That's okay, and by design. It will finish cooking during the 30 minute simmer, and by not cooking it all the way at first, we make sure not to overcook it. Any juices or fat that's released during simmering will get deposited into the sauce, which amounts to even more robust flavor in the final product.

Also, by searing the steak first and cooking the vegetables in the same pan, we utilize those amazing brown bits the steak leaves behind on the bottom of the pan, which are 100% flavor. When selecting a beef stock, the best option is homemade over a boxed stock, but boxed works in a pinch. Always go for an organic option, and spring for the more expensive brands with cleaner ingredients. You can also use veal stock, which will give a cleaner beef flavor, or even vegetable stock or chicken stock if that's all you have on hand - we're just looking for a base that enhances the flavors of the dish, rather than using something like water or milk.

For the noodle recipe, I made a 3 egg dough with about 2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt, rolled out to a 5 on my Marcato Atlas pasta machine, then folded and cut into strips about 3/4" wide (similar to pappardelle pasta). You can really use any type of noodle for this, or any starchy vehicle you want in order to transport the beef and mushrooms to your mouth.

If you're gluten free, substitute the noodles with rice (or gluten free noodles, of course). For the flour in the sauce, replace it with half the amount of corn starch, and rather than sprinkling it dry over the vegetables and beef, add the beef stock first, and in a separate dish, mix the corn starch with a bit of cold water, temper it with some of the hot stock to create a slurry, then whisk it into the rest.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with the Helper version of stroganoff - I loved the stuff growing up! But when you think about how long it takes to brown the beef, add in your packets of dry noodles and seasonings, cover and simmer, at the end of it all, it doesn't take that much more time to make it from scratch. A little more effort? Sure, but the final product is so far beyond what you could ever get out of the box, and so worth it.