Beef stroganoff or Stroganoff beef is a comfortable home-made meal that, with proper art, turns into a restaurant-level dish. Slices of tender meat in a simple but harmonious sauce go well with the most popular side dishes: mashed potatoes, rice, pasta.
The history of beef stroganoff
The recipe for Stroganoff Beef with Mustard first saw the light of day in the most popular pre-revolutionary Russian culinary book - A Gift to Young Housewives. In the 1871 reprint, Elena Molokhovets businesslike advised to cut soft beef into small squares, fry in butter and warm it up in a sauce of broth, sour cream, tomato and Sarapet mustard before serving. Less than half a century has passed, and now in another classic Russian culinary book, "Practical Foundations of Culinary Art" from Pelageya Pavlovna Alexandrova-Ignatieva, you can find the recipe "Bef Stroganov", in which it is recommended to first beat the beef tenderloin and then cut it into thin strips. fry with onions, simmer in tomato sauce with sour cream and serve with pail potatoes (as french fries were called in those days).
So what will be the classic recipe for the famous dish? Nobody knows this. According to a popular legend, the first dish was prepared by Count Stroganov's chef. This happened at the time when the count became the governor of Novorossiya and lived in Odessa. The nobleman considered it his duty to have an "open table" - that was the name of the custom, according to which every decently dressed man of noble birth could come to lunch or dinner and be sure that he would be invited to the table. Legend has it that not being able to guess how many people would be eating, the chef came up with a meat dish that could easily be divided into different numbers of identical portions. The dish, often served for dinner at the governor's, was to the taste of the inhabitants of Odessa, they learned its recipe and began to generously share it with friends.
Why is this story still more like a fiction? The fact is that the custom of having an open table originated in Elizabethan times, was widespread under Catherine II, and existed in some families until the revolution. For so many years, the chefs already knew in detail that they did not have to cook for such a meal and did not need to specially invent something. At the same time, chefs are inclined to experiment and it is quite possible that it was in the kitchen of Count Stroganov that someone first came up with the idea of using French sauce for meat as a Russian gravy. The idea turned out to be successful and the recipe, enriched with details, began its triumphant march, forever becoming a traditional Russian dish for the whole world.
Beef stroganoff according to Aleksandrova-Ignatieva
To make beef stroganoff according to a traditional pre-revolutionary recipe, you will need:
- 1 kg beef tenderloin;
- 100 g unsalted butter 82.5% fat;
- 130 g tomato paste;
- 130 g fat sour cream;
- 2 tbsp. beef broth;
- ½ fume;
- 1 teaspoon cold sauté;
- 1 head of onion;
- salt, pepper and kabul sauce to taste.
Some of the terms used by Pelageya Pavlovna need an explanation in the modern world. Fume is a very strong broth, cooked according to all the rules of the art of cooking - on baked bones and roots, highly boiled. Aromatic, jelly-like, it dissolves easily in sauces and gives them smell and taste. Now it can be easily replaced by bouillon concentrate from Maggi or Gallina Blanca. Cold sautéing is a few pinches of wheat flour, ground with butter until a friable dough. The flour prepared in this way thickens the sauce without forming lumps. Kabul or kabul sauce or soy-kabul is a spicy spicy sauce made from tomato puree, broth and spices that has practically sunk into the past. If you don't want to cook it yourself for complete authenticity, you should take a similar ready-made sauce, for example, "Kubansky".
Remove veins and films from the meat. Cut into slices across the grain. Thick cuts (sec, thick sirloin), beat off with a hammer. Chop the meat into strips 2-2 ½ cm long. Chop the onion in half rings. Melt the butter in a wide frying pan and fry the onions. When he is about to brown, put the meat, previously salted and dusty with flour. The beef should be in one layer in the pan, otherwise it will juice and the meat will be hard. Stir the meat while frying. When the beef is covered with a glossy film and browned, transfer it to a saucepan.
In the pan you used to grill the meat, prepare the tomato sauce. Heat the broth, melt the fume in it and add the tomato paste and sour cream, stir, add the seasoning and spices to taste. Pour the sauce into a saucepan and simmer the stroganoff over low heat for about 15 minutes, not allowing it to simmer, otherwise the meat will harden. Serve with French fries.
How beef stroganoff is prepared abroad
What is the reason for the popularity of beef stroganoff? This is a delicious dish that is easy to prepare using our step-by-step recipe. The recipe is easy to change and supplement, while the dish remains simple and recognizable. After the revolution, emigrants spread it around the world and it took root in many countries. The sophisticated French prefer veal beef stroganoff in a cream and white wine sauce; in the USA, mushrooms are added to the sauce and a dish with egg noodles is served. The British serve a version of beef stroganoff in pubs, where the meat is stewed in tomato sauce and sour cream is placed on top before serving. In Brazil, they love chicken stroganoff; in the Scandinavian countries, the dish is often prepared from boiled sausage. In Finland, the first to come up with the idea of putting pickles in the sauce.
Step-by-step recipe for beef stroganoff with mustard and cream
Sometimes beef stroganoff is prepared by cutting not raw meat into strips, but a ready-made fried steak. Chefs advocating this method insist that it will help keep the meat juicy and tender as much as possible. You will need:
- 600 g beef steaks;
- 2 heads of onions;
- 4 tbsp. tablespoons of butter;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of wheat flour;
- 300 g champignons;
- 150 ml beef broth;
- 250 ml of cream with a fat content of at least 22%;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of English mustard;
- a pinch of nutmeg;
- freshly ground black pepper;
- salt.
Season the beef steaks with salt, pepper and nutmeg and leave for an hour at room temperature. Chop the onion into thin half rings. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and saute the onion over medium heat until translucent. Transfer it to another dish. Melt a spoonful of butter, turn up the heat, and fry the steaks. Cook for 1-11/2 minutes on each side, until crusty. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices, melt another tablespoon of oil in a skillet and sauté the mushrooms. Place them on top of the onion. It is important not to wash the pan between cooking different foods, so that mouth-watering crispy crusts form at the bottom. Melt the remaining butter. Fry the wheat flour, add the mustard and broth. Combine while stirring. Add the onion and mushrooms, pour in the cream. Stir and heat. Cut the steak into strips and place in the sauce. Keep the dish on low heat for 10 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes, noodles, or boiled rice.
Beef stroganoff with pickles
The recipe for beef stroganoff is homemade and straightforward. The dish turns out to be comfortable, and the addition of pickles to the sauce gives it a special texture and piquancy. You will need:
- 500 g beef fillet;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of wheat flour;
- 15 g butter;
- 1 head of onion;
- 100 g of mushrooms (white, boletus, champignons);
- 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme;
- 150 g fat sour cream;
- 100 ml of cream with a fat content of about 30%;
- 2 teaspoons of English mustard;
- 6-7 gherkins or 2 large pickled cucumbers;
- salt and ground black pepper.
Cut the beef fillet into thin strips and roll in flour. Heat the olive oil in a heavy, wide skillet and brown the meat. Transfer to a plate. Chop the onion into thin half rings. Cut the mushrooms into thin slices. Melt the butter in the same skillet. Fry the onions until light golden brown, add mushrooms and thyme leaves. Stir and cook for 5-7 minutes. Return the meat to the pan and cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, stir in sour cream, mustard and cream. Cut the cucumbers into cubes. Add them along with the sauce to the meat. Stir, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and chopped parsley.
Beef stroganoff in a slow cooker
You can also cook this dish in a slow cooker. In this case, it is worth choosing a not so tender cut, because the meat, after a long stewing, will still melt in your mouth. You will need:
- 500 g beef fillet;
- ¼ cups of beef broth;
- 3 tbsp. spoons of Worcester sauce;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 300 g of porcini mushrooms;
- 3 heads of onions;
- ½ cup full-fat sour cream;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of chopped parsley;
- salt and ground black pepper.
Cut the onion into thin half rings. Pass the garlic through a press. Cut the meat into slices across the fibers, wrap in cling film and beat. Cut into strips. Chop the mushrooms into slices. In a bowl, whisk the broth with the Worcester sauce. Put meat, mushrooms, garlic in a multicooker bowl, mix and pour broth. Turn on the simmering mode and leave the dish for several hours. Add sour cream to the finished dish and serve with noodles, mashed potatoes, rice or buckwheat porridge, garnished with parsley.
A simple recipe for beef stroganoff with tomato paste
The sauce in which the meat is stewed in Stroganoff style should be slightly not very thick, tender, creamy, spicy and slightly sour. Some chefs believe that this is exactly the taste of gravy with tomato paste and paprika. Take:
- 400 g of beef;
- 30 g butter;
- 1 head of onion;
- 100 g of champignons;
- 1 pinch of sugar;
- ½ teaspoon ground paprika;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of tomato paste;
- 5 ml dry white wine;
- 4 tbsp. tablespoons of heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon of English mustard;
- ground black pepper and salt.
Cut the meat into pieces along the grain and beat them lightly with a hammer. Cut thin slices of meat into strips. Chop the onion in half rings. Melt the butter in a wide skillet and saute the onions until golden. Add the meat and cook, stirring occasionally, until a light crust forms. Add thinly sliced mushrooms, ground black pepper, paprika, salt and sugar. Cook for about 5-7 more minutes. Put in tomato paste and pour in white wine. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add mustard and cream, stir, heat and serve. From the listed number of products, you will get about 4 servings of the dish.
