Beef Stroganoff

I like mushrooms, but I leave them out of this recipe because a lot of people (primarily the one I live with) don't.  If you do, simply add a cup of your favorite mushrooms to the onions when you're sauteing them.

Beef Stroganoff


Ingredients

• 1 lb beef (sirloin tips or chuck steak work best), sliced into thin ribbons
• Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1&1/2 cups beef stock
• 1 tbsp "old style" or coarse Dijon mustard
• Medium yellow onion halved and sliced
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3-4 tbsp butter
• Extra large egg noodles or home-made pappardelle if you're feeling ambitious

Prep work

Marinate beef in Worcestershire sauce and a dry red wine for about an hour. Pat it dry on a paper towel, then slice diagonally as thin as you can manage.   Season with salt and pepper.  Slice the onion in half, then into thin (3/16") slices.

Cooking

Heat a dutch oven over similarly deep pan over medium high heat, brown the beef strips until they have seared crust.  It will only take a minute or so per side, and you're not really cooking it through but going for the ever-flavorful "browned bits".  If you have a lot of beef or a small pan, do it in stages .   Once satisfactorily browned, remove the meat from pan and set aside. 

Heat a tbsp of butter in the skillet . Saute onions with in tbsp butter until translucent and slightly browned de-glazing once with brandy and once with an ounce or two of beef stock.  Remove the onions from the pan, and set aside with the beef.

Heat the remaining three tbsp of butter, add flour and ground mustard seed to make a roux ( you may need to add a little more butter or olive oil if it's too thick.  When the roux is dark golden brown, slowly  add the beef stock and few shakes of Worcestershire  sauce. Whisk smooth and simmer until thickened, add beef (with any accumulated juices) and onions, mustard, cover and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.  While simmering, boil the noodles as you normally would and drain. 

Serving

Remove the beef Stroganoff from heat, stir in the sour cream, let stand covered for a minute or two, then serve over the noodles.