This dish will forever remind me of my late step-grandfather. Before he retired, he was a professional chef and at any family gathering or holiday we ever had, he always made 10-15 dishes and we would pass them around the table and eat until we couldn’t breathe. He was such a good cook and would make such elaborate dishes, but for some reason this beef stroganoff just sticks out in my mind. His beef stroganoff was the first stroganoff I’d ever had and, for me, when I like something A LOT the first time I have it, nothing else will ever measure up and compare. Using taste bud memory alone, I’ve worked on re-creating his recipe and I think I’ve come pretty close. I know I’ll never be able to replicate it exactly, but I think of him whenever I make this dish and the nostalgia alone makes it taste the same and brings me back to the first time I ever ate it.
Ingredients
2 lbs. Beef (I like to use a nice steak)
1 bunch Green Onions
5 tbsp. Butter
2 tbsp. Flour
1 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 ½ cups Beef Broth
12 mushrooms (I like to use a mix of different types)
½ cup Sour Cream
⅓ cup White Wine
Salt & Pepper
Chives
Egg Noodles
Directions
Add half your butter to a large skillet and let it melt. Add your beef (sliced to about 2 inch long strips), salt it nicely and brown on all sides. They don’t need to be cooked through, just nice and browned. Once that’s done- push all your beef to the side, add the rest of your butter and the green onions to the other side of the skillet and cook. This should only take a few minutes. Once they’re a little floppy, mix the beef and the onions together and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
Next, sprinkle your flour over your beef and green onion mixture and mix until all the flour is incorporated. Let that fry for a few minutes so the flavour of the flour can cook off. Then, add your beef broth and mustard and continuously mix. This should get a little thick, but you don’t want it to be too thick yet. If it is, add some more broth. This is going to simmer for about an hour, so you still want there to be enough liquid that it won’t burn. Cover with a lid and let it simmer for about an hour. Check on it every 5-10 minutes to make sure it’s not burning and give it a mix. By letting this simmer, the beef will become nice and tender.
In the last 10-15 minutes of simmering, start cooking your egg noodles. You can use other noodles, or even mashed potatoes for this recipe but egg noodles are the classic. Go classic on this one- trust.
After about an hour, once the beef is nice and soft, add your mushrooms and let them cook down for a few minutes. Then add your sour cream and wine and mix until combined. Unless the wine has made it super liquidy (it shouldn’t), you don’t need to cook it any longer and it’s ready to go!
Egg noodles on the bottom, stroganoff on top and garnish with some chives. Some rainy day comfort food!
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