Ina Garten-Inspired Beef Stroganoff
Half the stroganoff recipes online start with braising steak. That is the wrong cut for this dish, and no amount of technique rescues it.
Stroganoff cooks in twenty-five minutes, and tough cuts need three hours to become tender. Braising steak given ten minutes in a pan is exactly what it sounds like: grey, chewy and dry, because the collagen has tightened and has not had time to melt. The dish was built around quick-cooking cuts — fillet tails, sirloin, rump — sliced thin and seared for under a minute a side.
If you have braising steak, make a stew. This is not that.
Jump to the recipe ↓Ina Garten-Inspired Beef Stroganoff
Serves 6 · Main
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 45 min
Involved8 steps, 12 ingredients, a technique that commonly fails
Ingredients
- 700 g beef sirloin or fillet, sliced thin across the grain
- 3 tbsp butter, plus 2 tbsp oil
- 400 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 150 ml brandy or white wine
- 400 ml beef stock
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 250 g soured cream, room temperature
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
Method
- Pat the beef dry and season it. Sear in batches a side, in a very hot pan. Remove.30–40 seconds
- Brown the mushrooms in a dry pan until their water has evaporated.
- Add butter and onions and soften . Add garlic and paprika.8 minutes
- Stir in the flour and cook.1 minute
- Add the brandy and reduce, then the stock and Dijon. Simmer until it coats a spoon.
- Off the heat, temper the soured cream with a ladle of hot sauce, then stir it back in.
- Return the beef and any resting juices. Warm through without boiling.
- Parsley over, and serve with buttered noodles.
Slice thin, across the grain, and sear in batches
Thin strips cut across the muscle fibres cook through before they can toughen. A crowded pan drops below the temperature where browning happens and the beef releases its juice and stews. Two or three batches, thirty to forty seconds a side, straight out onto a plate.
The soured cream goes in off the heat
Soured cream has too little fat to stay stable when boiled — the proteins tighten and it splits into grains and whey. Take the pan off the hob, stir a ladleful of the hot sauce into the soured cream first to warm it gently, then stir that back in. It will not split.
Room temperature soured cream
Straight from the fridge it will seize when it meets a hot pan even with tempering. Take it out when you start cooking; twenty minutes is enough.
Storing
Two days. Reheat very gently — anything approaching a simmer splits the sauce, and a split stroganoff cannot be brought back. It does not freeze.
Questions people ask
What cut of beef should I use?
Sirloin, rump or fillet. Braising steak needs hours and will be tough here.
Why did my sauce split?
The soured cream boiled. Take the pan off the heat and temper it first.
Can I use crème fraîche?
Yes, and it is more stable because it has more fat. The flavour is slightly less sharp.
Can I make it ahead?
Make the sauce ahead and add the seared beef and soured cream when you reheat.
More like this
Ina Garten-Inspired Beef Bourguignon: Garnish ApartThe onions and mushrooms are cooked separately and added at the end. Simmered in from the start they are what turns it into ordinary stew.
Ina Garten-Inspired Beef Tenderloin: Tuck the TailA whole tenderloin tapers from thick to thin. Fold the narrow end under and tie it, or that end is well done before the middle is warm.
Ina Garten-Inspired Bolognese: The Milk Is Not OptionalA cup of milk simmered into the meat early tenderises it and rounds off the tomato. It is in the traditional recipe and it is the first thing dropped.