Revisiting a classic: beef stroganoff

This is a dish that has been on Annalena's mind, for quite some time. She remembers a time, the 60s in fact, when this seemed to be all the rage. There was even a tv commercial, where each ingredient in the dish, was assigned an operatic voice. If Annalena remembers correctly, the beef was given the bass role, the onions, the tenor part (it was a dramatic tenor), while the mushrooms seemed to be the soubrette, and the sour cream, which was the object of the commercial, the soprano.

Does anyone else remember this silly commercial? Or is Annalena going battier than she already is? Her friend Sybil is one who may very well remember this, being a child of 60s tv as she is. We will have to caucus.

In any event, heaven knows why this came back to Annalena's addled mind, but she is glad it did. This is one of those dishes that you WANT to come home to. And if you can't, you can make it, in less than 30 minutes. Probably less if you buy the meat in cubes already, but we will come to that, ragazzi. It is hearty, and while Annalena cannot say that this is a light dish, it is comforting , and satisfying, in a way that we all want our food to be when it is about 25 degrees outside, snow is on the way, and we are all freezing. So, ragazzi, once you make this, the next chance you get, buy some extra meat, freeze it, and be ready for making this again.


Let's talk about the meat first. When Annalena first learned of this dish, the prescribed cut was sirloin tips. Perhaps this was a cut more common in the 60s than it is now. Annalena HAS found it, but not often, and frankly, is not that big a fan of the sirloin cut in general. It was chosen because one of the points of this dish is that it is quick to cook, and sirloin tips brown fantastically fast. In fact, with them, you could probably make the dish in 20 minutes; however, Annalena prefers her meat more robust (silenzio, ragazzi!), and prefers to use a cubed meat. Now, let's talk about this too. If you buy beef cubes, and you ask the butcher, or the sales person, "what cut is this," you will probably get a blank stair, or "stew meat." And if you ask "what is stew meat", you will get another stare. Stew meat can be shoulder. It can be leg. It can be any of the tougher, chewier cuts of meat. Essentially, what the butcher does not sell on Monday, becomes stew meat on Tuesday. And frankly, for most applications, this is fine. You will be "stewing" the meat for a long period of time, and the cooking will proceed in its merry way.

Stroganoff cooks quickly. It must. So, Annalena prefers to buy a roast, and cube it herself. Get a small one: about three pounds. You can use sirloin if you like it, but Annalena prefers the top or bottom round (again, silenzio!). As always, go for the grass fed meat. If you have time to prepare the cubes ahead of time, you should salt them and leave then in the fridge, after your large knife has gone to work and produced cubes of about an inch/inch and a half per side. When Annalena did this last week, it took less than ten minutes. Do not hurry and hurt yourself, but it will not take long.

For this much meat, slice a pound and a half of mushroom. The plain white ones are fine, the creminis, even better. You may also want to spend the extra money and save yourself some time, if you can find them presliced. Annalena decided to splurge with the extra buck and a half. A bit of diced onion, please. Maybe one medium sized one for this much meat. A total of 4 tablespoons of fat: equal amounts of butter, and of vegetable oil. Finally, two cups of sour cream. Use the full fat stuff, or the 2%. If you are going lower than that, you shouldn't be making beef stroganoff.

Now that you've gathered all your ingredients, melt the butter in the oil, and then add the beef cubes. Don't crowd the pan, and brown them thoroughly. You may want to check, after about 6-7 minutes of cooking (turning every two minutes), to see if the meat is done enough for you. It will cook quickly. When it's nice and browned, and cooked, remove it from the pan. Now add the onions and cook them in the drippings, just until they're soft. Put them aside with the beef (note that Annalena varies from orthodoxy here, and cooks the beef before the onions. She does this so that the beef does not burn from the hot fat). Now, add the sliced mushrooms. If they do not all fit at once, add them in portions. Let them sit for a minute or two, and then start stirring. You will be amazed, at how rapidly the mushrooms reduce, and the water goes off. Soon, you will be wondering what happened to all those mushrooms: the volume will drop by at least 2/3.

When your mushrooms have cooked, toss the beef and onions back in, and stir everything together. Now pour in that pint of sour cream. Turn off the heat, and stir it together. Taste it, and add salt if you like, or a big spoon of prepared mustard. You may also want to shower this with some chopped scallions, or some other bright green thing. Garlic greens seem to have been "discovered" by our local farmers market types who have greenhouses, and I would use this if you can find them.

Annalena dedicates this to her sister Sybil, because if there is anyone who remembers that silly commerical, it is Sybil. And if she doesn't, or pretends not to because she is too young, she will probaby re-cast it, singing all the parts.

Alla prossima, carini.