Cookbook writer Beth Nguyen’s intelligent tackle a traditional beef stroganoff recipe is impressed by a memorable meal she had at a classmate’s home within the predominantly white Midwestern city the place she grew up. (Read Nguyen’s essay about it here.) A number of intelligent tips make this model distinctly hers. First, she supplants the same old Worcestershire sauce with fish sauce. “You possibly can’t style the fish sauce,” Nguyen notes, “however you want it” to ship a sauce with a strong umami punch. Subsequent, she replaces wan sliced white button mushrooms with hearty halved and quartered criminis. Lastly, she replaces the standard chopped contemporary parsley garnish with sliced scallions for a end with extra chunk.
“Beef stroganoff has so few guidelines you don’t have to fret about breaking any,” Nguyen writes. The truth is, there are dozens of interpretations of this Nineteen Fifties staple of Russian origin together with floor beef stroganoff, ones made with cream of mushroom soup, slow-cooker and crock-pot renditions—and those who let you know to easily comply with the bundle instructions. Executed effectively, it’s a type of most important dishes that’s becoming for a cocktail party or a weeknight meal with the entire household. The secret is to ensure nothing will get overcooked. Nguyen opts for skirt steak over ribeye, beef tenderloin, or sirloin steak, pan-sears it in hunks, then slices and serves it over the noodles and cream sauce so it stays tender and flavorful. To maintain the salt degree in examine, she makes use of low-sodium beef inventory as an alternative of bouillon. One factor to look out for when making the stroganoff sauce: Bitter cream can break up if added on to scorching liquid, so combine it individually with a small quantity of heat sauce to maintain it clean and produce a luxuriously creamy sauce to spoon over these buttered noodles.