Velvety Beef Stroganoff

Julesong's Note:

This is a combination of both my husband's and my mother's excellent recipes, and has a wonderful sauce for oodles of noodles or cooked rice. The secret of the "velvety beef" is in the preparation of the meat! :) The texture is quite a bit different from what you might be used to, so you might want to try it both ways. In any case, the stroganoff is delicious either with or without the special meat preparation. Enjoy!

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 1/2 lbs beef, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1/4 cup room temperature water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 -3 garlic cloves, crushed (more if you like garlic)
• 1/2 lb mushroom, sliced thin (Julie prefers crimini, baby portabellos! (or more)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon powder or 2 teaspoons beef bouillon cubes
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon good quality paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• cooked noodles or cooked rice, for serving

Directions:

1. Slice beef very thinly across the grain and place in ceramic or glass bowl.
2. Mix together the baking soda and 1/4 cup water, then pour it over the beef. Stir well and let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter into oil and sauté onions on low heat for about 10 minutes until golden. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook another 10 minutes (add a little wine for moisture if needed).
4. Remove the sliced beef from the bowl and rinse it well under running cold water in a colander; let drain.
5. Add well-drained beef to the cooked mushroom mixture and sauté another 10 minutes. Please note that when you add the beef it will make the sauce foam - this is to be expected and will subside somewhat.
6. Sprinkle flour in and stir until everything is coated.
7. Dissolve the granulated bouillon (or two cubes) in the 1 cup hot water, and add this plus the Worcestershire, bay leaf, wine, paprika, and white pepper to the meat mixture.
8. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, tasting it periodically until any "floury" taste is gone.
9. When you are close to serving, take it off the heat and add the sour cream, careful not to curdle, and stir well. Remove the bay leaf.
10. Serve with cooked noodles or rice (or for those eating lowcarb, lots of sautéed mushrooms).
11. The stroganoff can also be made with venison for a tasty variation! Various cuts of beef can be used - use whatever you have, but make sure to slice it thinly across the grain - steaks, roast, tenderloin (I usually end up with approximately 1-inch strips that are about 3 or 4 inches long).
12. The "secret" in this recipe that makes it so special is treatment of the meat with the baking soda. It ensures a wonderfully tender and velvety beef (you can use the same process with your Mongolian Beef recipe to get the same texture that the restaurants achieve).

Reviews

[mika_vumner]

I'd go higher than five if I could! I absolutely loved this recipe - as did the husband, and most of our friends who tried it one night during a get-together. The meat came out melt-in-your-mouth tender. Julesong does a really good breakdown of the steps, so it was very easy, and very straightforward when cooking it. The only really adaptations I did the second time in making it was that, first off, I doubled the recipe, yet didn't double the amount of garlic and wine used in it while adding even more mushrooms! It came out loaded, yes, but the pot was cleaned, and one friend didn't get any when he arrived late. ;)

[Steingrim]

We are so happy to discover the secret of really tender beef for our stroganoff. Try it for yourself, it is amazing what the baking soda process does.

[Myrna in London]

I have made this recipe on three different occasions. The first time I had to substitute white grape juice for the wine. The next two times wine was used...and rightly so. To counterbalance the sour cream something slightly astringent is needed. On the next two occasions was trying to determine precisely why this recipe is better than any other stroganoff i have tasted or made. The most concise thing is to say that one should take the adjective ‘velvety’ very seriously. There is an overall smoothness to this recipe that I have not experienced before. Yet there are layers of flavour for all the smoothness. The beef was indeed tender but for me that was only one of the positive components of this recipe. I’m afraid I haven’t yet captured the ‘magic’ of this recipe...so I will return after making it a dozen or so times more to see if I can be concise. Of course I could merely use my alternative review here...FANTASTIC!