I grew up eating beef stroganoff a few times a year and always enjoyed it. The beef flavor along with mushrooms and sour cream, over pasta, sign me up! I recall even requesting it as a birthday meal once. It’s safe to say that I really do love the stuff. I think I grew up eating a very traditional and basic recipe for it which consisted of cooking the floured beef cubes, allowing them to simmer with the mushrooms and finally mixing in the sour cream right before it was time to eat. The first year I was married, I called up my mother, wrote down her recipe and proudly made my very first beef stroganoff.
Eric was less than impressed. Picture the wind in my sails going down, fast. He was not as into the eggs noodles covered in sour cream sauce as I had been. I mean, I still thought it tasted delicious, but I could tell he was forcing it down. Since then, I’ve enjoyed my childhood beef stroganoff only once or twice; I just can’t watch Eric try and eat it so I stopped making it, until last year.
While paging through an issue of Bon Appetit, I came across a new version of beef stroganoff in which I could leave out the egg noodles and instead serve it over toasted bread. It also used sherry and shallots, two things my old beef stroganoff was without. I made the recipe and quickly won back Eric’s heart. Admittedly, it was better than the stuff I grew up with and has become our beef stroganoff staple recipe.
The recipe itself is not complicated, but it does have a few steps, especially when it comes to assembling the final dish.
Start by prepping the ingredients and then cooking the mushrooms. Melt the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Saute the mushrooms until they release their liquid, about 6 minutes.**Try to get a mushroom medley or more than one kind of mushrooms, like white and cremini. The varieties add great flavor.**
Add the sherry or vermouth and simmer the mushrooms until the liquid reduces, about 1 minute. Take off heat and stir in creme fresh or heavy cream, season with salt and pepper. Let sit while you cook the beef.
In a separate skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat. Cook the beef for about 30 seconds on each side to sear it.
Transfer beef to a plate and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the sliced shallots to the skillet and cook until brown, about 4 minutes.
Stir in flour and tomato paste and stir around, it will clump. Add in broth and paprika.
Simmer until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the beef cubes back into the sauce and remove from heat.
Stir in sour cream.
While the sauce is cooking, toast the sourdough slices. Mix together olive oil and tomato paste and spread on one side of the bread slice.
Toast about a minute per side under the broiler, on a large baking sheet.
To assemble, spoon some of the beef mixture onto the toast.
Top with a scoop of the mushroom mixture.
This dish is so good and I love the use of tomato paste on the toast, it adds such a great flavor to the dish. If you like mushrooms, you will love this recipe!
Here is the recipe from Epicurious.com:
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, divided
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 1 pound assorted fresh wild mushrooms (such as chanterelle, oyster, crimini, and stemmed shiitake), cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
- Coarse kosher salt
- ¼ cup dry white vermouth or dry Sherry
- ¼ cup crème fraîche or heavy whipping cream
- 1 1½-pound tri-tip roast, excess fat trimmed, meat cut against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices, slices cut crosswise into 3-inch lengths
- 1 cup thinly sliced shallots (about 4 large)
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon plus 2½ tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup beef broth
- ½ teaspoon Hungarian sweet paprika
- 6 5 x 3 x ½-inch slices crusty sourdough bread
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add sliced wild mushrooms to skillet; sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper and sauté until mushrooms release juices, about 6 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high; sauté until mushrooms are tender and brown, about 4 minutes longer. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 hours ahead. Remove from heat. Let stand at room temperature.
- Add vermouth to mushrooms and boil until almost evaporated but still moist, scraping up browned bits, about 1 minute. Stir in crème fraîche; remove from heat. Season to taste with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Cover; set aside.
- Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in another large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add beef slices to skillet and sauté just until brown outside but still pink in center, about 30 seconds per side. Transfer beef slices to plate; sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper. Add sliced shallots to same skillet, reduce heat to medium, and sauté until golden brown and tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in flour and 1 teaspoon tomato paste (mixture will clump). Add broth and paprika and whisk to blend, scraping up browned bits. Simmer until sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Season sauce to taste with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Remove from heat; cover and keep warm.
- Meanwhile, preheat broiler. Whisk remaining 3 tablespoons oil and 2½ tablespoons tomato paste in small bowl to blend. Arrange bread slices in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Brush oil-tomato paste mixture lightly over both sides of bread slices. Broil bread just until lightly toasted, watching closely to avoid burning, about 1 minute per side. Arrange sourdough toasts on large platter.
- Add beef slices and any accumulated juices to shallot mixture in skillet; bring to simmer, stirring occasionally, then stir in sour cream. Remove from heat. Season to taste with coarse salt and pepper. Rewarm mushroom mixture over medium heat.
- Divide beef mixture among toasts, then top each with mushroom mixture. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
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