Today we make the beef stroganoff recipe that I wish my mom made me as a kid. Beef stroganoff was always a little bland but anything over noodles I love. We fix all the issues today by using the braising technique and instead of using steak, we use short ribs and some high-quality mushrooms. The recipe is a dream.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless short ribs
- 1 large onion
- 2 carrots
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons AP flour
- 4 cups beef stock
- 2 cups red wine
- 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- 2 cloves garlic - smashed
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 pound assorted mushrooms - Cremini, Shittake, Chestnut or any mushroom you like and can find
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme - chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter
- canola oil
- olive oil
- salt - to taste
- egg noodles - to serve
Instructions
Prep the beef and vegetables:
- Cut the onion and carrot into a large dice and smash the garlic cloves.
- Trim any excess fat from the beef and then dice into large yet still bite-sized pieces, keeping in mind the beef will shrink during cooking, roughly 1 1/2 inch pieces.
- Pat the beef dry and season with salt.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Brown the beef:
- On the stove in a large, hot dutch oven on medium-high heat, sear the beef on all sides in oil and in batches. Take your time and make sure all the pieces are really well seared. Since were using short ribs, you won't overcook the meat so you can get a really good sear on it.
Sauteé the vegetables:
- Once all the beef is seared, set it aside on a platter and then add the vegetables into the pot.
- Add a bit more oil if needs and season the vegetables.
- Cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until the big pieces of carrot and onion soften and there is a nice caramelized aroma wafting from the pot.
Build flavor into the braising liquid:
- Once you can see some “fond” or brown bits developing on the bottom of the pan, add the paprika and stir to coat and toast for a minute or two.
- Then add the tomato paste and stir to combine and cook the rawness out of the paste.
- Once you can see the “fond” on the bottom of the pan building, but not burning, add the flour and stir to coat.
- Once that fond is is nice and thick but still not burnt, then we can deglaze with red wine and then scrape the bottom of the pan to pick up all those bits, then let the wine reduce to a glaze.
- Then add in the broth or stock.
Braise the beef:
- Add the beef back to the pot, bring it up to a boil.
- Place the lid on the pot and then place it in the oven to cook for 3 hours or until the beef is fork-tender and can easily pull apart when torn.
Sauteé the mushrooms & make the sour cream mixture:
- Thirty minutes before the beef is done cooking, clean and cut the mushrooms and tear some fresh thyme leaves.
- Also combine the sour cream, heavy cream, and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and stir to combine.
- After 3 hours of cooking, take the beef out of the oven and test for tenderness. If the beef is still tough, let it cook a little longer.
- Once the beef is out of the oven, in a pan over high heat, saute the mushrooms in butter and olive oil and season with salt and thyme. Develop some color on the mushrooms. Mushrooms always release water first and then brown so make sure the heat is high enough to evaporate the moisture and help brown the mushrooms quicker.
- While the mushrooms are browning, temper the sour cream mixture by adding a small amount of the hot stew liquid into the cream a little bit at a time and stirring it in, then add the cream into the pot and stir to get it well combined.
- Once the mushrooms are browned, add them to the pot and stir to combine.
Cook the noodles, finish, and serve:
- At the same time, get a pot of salted water boiling for the noodles.
- Drop the noodles and cook them just like pasta, if they cook for 9 minutes, drain it at 8 minutes.
- Finish cooking in the stroganoff sauce until it's al dente. Using the skillet that the mushrooms were sauteed in, add the noodles and ladel in some sauce. Toss and stir over low heat until the pasta if al dente, adding in some pasta water as needed.
- Serve the sauced noodles in a bowl topped with plenty of meat and mushrooms and vegetables ladled on top.
- Garnish with some chopped parsley.