Recipe: Katia's Beef Stroganoff

After our meal at Katia's Russian Tea Room, Katia was nice enough to share her tried and true recipe for comforting beef stroganoff.  I'd heard of it but, to be honest, never eaten it. What I thought I knew? That it was served over noodles. Uh-uh. "That's an American invention," says Katia. "Traditionally it's served over french fries." Beef stroganoff just got a whole lot more exciting! I made it according to her recipe below, and served it over rice -- my deep frying skills aren't up to snuff. What resulted was tender chunks of beef in a velvety sauce with just enough dill to make things interesting. Great with a bottle of hearty red wine on a cold winter's night -- something that San Francisco has plenty of.

Katia's Beef Stroganoff
Yield: 4 servings

Beef Stroganoff is a classic Russian dish, delicious and very easy to make. It is basically thin strips of tender beef cooked in a roux (sauce), combined with thinly sliced sautéed onions and mushrooms and traditionally served with shoestring fries. It also tastes delicious accompanied by rice.

It can be as low fat or as buttery as you like.  Frying the mushrooms and onions and making the roux can be done with butter or just a bit of oil. At Katia’s the sour cream is just a topping, but it can also be stirred into the sauce at the very end, before serving.

This is not a dish that has to stew or cook a long time so tender cuts of beef should be used.  I use beef sirloin top loin and find it unnecessary to go to pricier cuts such as beef loin or beef tenderloin.

1 ½ lb. beef sirloin top loin
2 TBSP butter
1 large onion, thinly sliced into half moons
1/2 lb. mushrooms, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 TBSP oil
¼ cup flour
1 ¼ cups beef bouillon
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp freshly chopped dill
2 TBSP sour cream

Trim beef of all fat and slice thin strips against the grain. Set aside.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large frying pan and sauté the onions until translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the sliced mushrooms, and sauté 2-3 more minutes.  Lightly salt and pepper onions and mushrooms as they cook.  Transfer to a bowl and set aside.  In same pan make the roux.  Heat 2 tablespoons of oil, whisk in the flour and add beef bouillon to make a gravy-like sauce.  Stir in the Dijon mustard. Add the beef strips to the sauce and simmer for 3-4 minutes.  Return onions and mushrooms and simmer 5 minutes more.  Adjust salt and pepper seasoning.  Right before serving stir in dill and sour cream.  Serve with shoestring fries or fluffy basmati rice. 

Recipe and headnote courtesy of Katia Troosh.

Comments

[Nerissa]

My mom used to make a version of this with mushroom soup instead of sour cream. But I think she only made it when I was a kid because I don't think I've ever seen her make it now. I had no idea it was served with french fries traditionally. I had such an aversion to the dish as a child that I don't even remember what it was served with.
But it is cool to know about the french fries if His Froginess would actually want to eat this one day. I don't know about me... *S* I've been a pesco-vegetarian so long that I can't even really picture myself eating meat so much.

[Tracy]

I've enjoyed reading your recent posts on your experience living in Russia and your renewed interest in foods Russian. I hope there's more to come!

[Tracy]

Love the new design of your blog!

[Catherine]

Nerissa -- the ubiquitous can of cream of mushroom soup. I love it! It's as American as baseball and apple pie!

Tracy -- thanks, and thanks! I got tired of looking at my silly old face staring back at me!

[Jane]

Great article, keep up the good work.

[Catherine]

Jane -- thank you!

[Beth]

My mom used to make this, too, probably with the can of mushroom soup. I think it must have been a popular American dish in the 60s/70s.

My mom had a tradition that on our birthdays, my sister and I could choose whatever dish we wanted and she would make it for us. I would often choose beef stroganoff over noodles. Looking back, I think that's so weird because I am not much of a meat eater, but I guess I was back then!

[Catherine]

Beth -- well if ever you get a hankering, here's a recipe to try. It's quite good, but you do, of course, have to like meat :)

[Robyn]

"...something that San Francisco has plenty of."

Hearty red wine or cold winter nights? ;-)

Might just have to crank up the air-conditioning to deep freeze and get a pot of this bubbling on the stove. Thanks for sharing Katia's recipe, really brings the preceding two posts to life!

[Catherine]

Robyn -- I meant the cold nights. I'm still grumpy that we got no summer this year (although it's definitely been warmer the last week...)

[rikki]

i was reading the second paragraph of this page and i saw it said beef stroganoff was cooked in a roux and in parenthesis it says sauce. a roux is not a sauce nor is stroganoff cooked in a roux. a roux is a french thickening tecnique made of 1 part clarified butter (fat) and 1 part flour.