Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff or Beef Stroganov is a Russian dish made out of sautéed beef in sour cream sauce.  The name originated from a very important family with the surname of Stroganov, but no one is sure which was the authentic ones as there are multiple claims and the popular ones are from the family of Alexander Stroganoff (Minister of Interior) and Count Pavel Stroganov (Commander in the Patriotic War).

The original recipe consists only of floured beef sautéed and prepared with mustard, stock and sour cream only until it was commercialized in US during 1950’s that onions and mushrooms have been added.  Usually served with rice but sometimes pasta is used, also this dish does not come only in the white sauce variant, sometimes red sauce is prevalent in other regions where it is popular like Brazil and some British Pubs.

My mom used to cook this a lot when I was a child due to the fact that it’s to prepare and cook, she always cooked the tomato based version but personally I like the sour cream variant as I am exhausted already of the common Filipino dish like Afritada, Filipino Spaghetti and Menudo who all have tomato sauce bases.  So for this recipe it will definitely be the sour cream version and you can enjoy it with either rice or pasta (fettuccine works best)

Ingredients

700g sirloin or tenderloin, cut thin into 2 inch strips
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup beef stock
1/2 cup butter
1 large white onion, finely chopped
300g farmers brown mushrooms, sliced
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp dry tarragon
salt
freshly ground pepper

Method

1. Using 1/2 of the butter, pan fry quickly the beef strips in high heat browning on all sides.  Make sure that the temperature is not high enough to burn the butter but hot enough to sear the beef.  Set the beef strips aside once browned.
2. Using the same pan add the remaining butter then saute onions and mushrooms.
3. Now add the beef stock, nutmeg and tarragon, bring to a boil then reduce until 1/2 the volume.
4. Lower the heat then add the sour cream cook until hot but do not simmer or boil otherwise it will curdle.  Season with salt and pepper then remove from heat then mix in the cooked meat.  Serve with rice, pasta or bread.