Beef Stroganoff: recipe, choice of meat

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Updated: TomaB

11/22/2018 Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes

The history of the origin of this dish is interesting because of its uncertainty and many variations. The most common opinion is that Count Stroganov’s cook invented this dish for his old master, who could no longer chew solid food.

General principles of cooking

There are several important principles for preparing the dish under discussion:

• beef should be selected with special care - it is best to take young meat;

• there should be no dense veins or films on the product; all this will need to be removed;
• After rinsing, the beef should be blotted on all sides with paper towels to remove all excess moisture before frying the meat;
• if the base of the gravy is a dairy product, then it is better not to use one that is too fatty;
• The older the meat, the longer it will need to be simmered over low heat until it becomes soft and tender in the end.

Classic recipe with cream and tomato

Bistrogon can be prepared from beef, for example, according to the classic version of the recipe. In this case, the meat will simmer in a delicate cream-based gravy. But you don’t need to choose a fatty dairy product. 10% cream will be enough. Flour is used to thicken the gravy. The recipe calls for 2 tbsp. l., but you can independently adjust the amount of additive to achieve the desired consistency.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• pure beef pulp – 570-600 g;
• cream - 1 full glass;
• tomato paste – 75-80 g;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• flour and butter - 2 tbsp. l.;
• salt and spices.

To make the dish easier to prepare, it contains tomato paste. But you can also use fresh tomatoes. They should be fresh, soft, meaty. Such vegetables are first removed from the skin, processed in a blender and mixed with salt and seasonings. Then they can be used instead of store-bought paste. Another option is to use ketchup. But it is better to leave it as a last resort.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. The meat piece, freed from all excess and washed, is covered with a film/bag, after which it is lightly beaten with a special culinary hammer.
2. The beef is then cut into wide slices. Next, they need to be turned into bars with a thickness of no more than 1 cm. In this case, you will need to work with a knife across the fibers.

3. The resulting sliced ​​meat is thoroughly breaded in flour on all sides. And the onion is peeled and chopped into small cubes.
4. First, fry the onion pieces in a frying pan until lightly golden. And then add breaded beef to them. Together the ingredients will cook for approximately 3.5-4 minutes.
5. Next, you can pour cream over the products and transfer tomato paste/vegetable pulp from a blender to them. At this stage it’s time to salt the mass.
6. Let the treat simmer under the lid for about half an hour. The fire should be minimal. Then it’s time to try the beef and, if it is not soft enough, increase the cooking time.
7. At the very end, you can pepper the treat or use any favorite spices. If the sauce is not thick enough for the cook’s taste, an additional portion of flour will correct the situation.

The dish is delicious served with almost any side dish. Tender mashed potatoes are perfect here. It is only important that both the meat and the side dish are hot.

Classic recipe

It was according to this recipe that several centuries ago Alexander Grigorievich Stroganov (the creator of the dish) prepared beef stroganoff for noble people. Not many ingredients are needed for cooking, but to start cooking, you should first prepare:

• 500 g rear leg of beef;
• two medium onions;
• 50 g butter;
• about 200 g of sour cream with a high percentage of fat;
• a little flour;
• 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce;
• parsley

For spices and herbs, you can use thyme, ground black pepper, salt, and ground coriander.

In mushroom sauce

Bistrogon can be prepared from beef according to various other recipes. The option published below in the article suggests trying to combine meat with mushrooms. The easiest way is to use champignons, because they do not require long and complex preliminary preparation. This version of the dish belongs to the original Russian cuisine.

Beef bistrogon, recipe in mushroom sauce.

You can surprise foreign guests with it, for example, by serving a treat with a side dish of buckwheat porridge.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef tenderloin – 900-950 g;
• champignons – 230-250 g;
• cream - 1 full glass;
• laurel leaf – 2-4 pcs.;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• flour - 1.5-2 tbsp. l.;
• oil, salt.

All of the above ingredients will yield approximately 2-3 servings of the dish.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. The peeled onion should be chopped. It is best to cut it into half rings.
2. Afterwards, you can fry the product in hot fat in a frying pan. There should not be a lot of vegetable oil, and it is enough to just bring the onion to transparency.
3. Mushrooms are cut into thin slices. It is also advisable to first remove the thin outer skin from them. Then you need to fry the champignons along with the onions until the liquid evaporates.

4. When there is no longer any excess moisture left in the pan, it’s time to send the beef to the food. First, the meat will be cut into thin, long pieces.
5. After 7-8 minutes of frying, you can fill everything with flour, add cream, salt and add bay leaves. It is also allowed to pepper the mass.

You will need to simmer all the ingredients together until the beef is tender and soft. The fire should be as small as possible.

With onions and paprika

A variety of vegetables go well with beef. So, it’s delicious to add onions, sweet peppers and dried paprika to the dish right away. The result is meat in a spicy gravy. To make sure there is a lot of sauce, cooks usually use plain water. But it’s tastier to take broth. For example, beef or vegetable. The calorie content of this type of treat is approximately 113 kcal per 100 g.

And his BJU:

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef fillet – half a kilo;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• sweet pepper – 2 pcs.;
• broth - 1 tbsp.;
• ground sweet paprika – 1 tsp;
• salt, spices, oil.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. The washed meat should be rid of tendons. Afterwards it is dried with a towel made of natural fabric, chopped into several parts, and each one is cut into strips.
2. Sprinkle the meat pieces with salt and spices and grind well. Then they go into a frying pan with thoroughly heated fat and fry for 5-6 minutes.
3. The onion is peeled and chopped into small pieces. It needs to be fried in a separate frying pan until golden.

4. You need to remove the seeds from sweet peppers. Afterwards, the remaining part (without partitions) will be cut into strips. The pepper pieces should be fried along with the onion until softened.
5. Only when the vegetables are sufficiently prepared can you combine them with the previously fried beef. Broth is poured on top and paprika is added. Covered over low heat, the treat will simmer until the beef is soft and tender.

As a side dish, it is best to take potatoes in any form. Baked, fried, and mashed potatoes with cream are also suitable.

Classic beef stroganoff - general cooking principles

Beef for beef stroganoff is cut into long strips or thick strips. The fresher and younger the meat, the tastier the dish will be, and the faster it will cook. The pieces are breaded in flour, then fried in parts or all at once. Next, add the remaining ingredients.

What else is added to beef stroganoff:

• tomato sauce;

• spices, herbs.

Vegetables are also usually sautéed in oil to give the dish a rich flavor. Sour cream or tomato are used together or separately. In the classic version, no water is added to the meat. But if you plan to serve the dish with dry side dishes, you can pour in a little boiling water. The time for stewing beef in sauce directly depends on the quality of the meat, but in any case it must be brought to softness.

Beef stroganoff is prepared in a deep frying pan, cauldron, stewpan or other thick-bottomed container in which you can fry. But there are classic recipes for this dish in a slow cooker or in the oven, they can be found a little lower.

With champignons

Bistrogon made from beef is delicious with mushrooms. The recipe below suggests simmering the main ingredients in a flavorful white sauce. The latter is mixed with sour cream. It is advisable to use young beef for the recipe so that you do not have to heat it for too long until it is soft.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef (tenderloin) – half a kilo;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• champignons (large) – 3-5 pcs.;
• flour and sour cream - 2.5-3 tbsp. l.;
• oil, salt and spices.

You can increase the amount of sour cream in the recipe if you wish. Then the gravy will turn out even more appetizing, thicker, with a rich creamy taste.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. The washed and dried meat pulp should be cut into small pieces. They should turn out thin and long, just like for the basics.
2. Heat vegetable fat in a frying pan. About 2 tbsp will be enough. l. In this oil you need to fry the meat slices prepared above. The process will take about 6-7 minutes. It is recommended not to stir the products too often during the process. 2 times is enough. It is important that the meat has time to brown slightly.
3. Afterwards, it’s time to add all the flour to the beef. After stirring, it remains to fry for literally 1 minute and you can remove the product from the heat.
4. The champignons are peeled from the top thin film, and the onions are peeled. The main parts of these products are cut randomly. Onions can even be chopped into thin half rings.
5. In the remaining fat from the meat, you will first need to fry the onion. Let it cook until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes. Then you can add mushrooms to it. The mixture will cook for another 6-7 minutes until all the excess liquid from the pan has evaporated.
6. You can mix the contents of the container with previously cooked meat, sour cream, and salt it.
7. The products are poured with hot water on top. About 1.5-2 tbsp will be enough. liquids.
8. After the next stirring, the treat will remain to simmer for about half an hour. It must be cooked under a tight lid.

If necessary, you can extend the stewing time so that the meat becomes soft and tender. The resulting treat can be served with a variety of simple side dishes.

With pickled cucumbers

One of the delicious unusual additions to the dish under discussion is pickled cucumbers. In this form, the recipe for the treat can be found in old cookbooks. If you don’t have pickled cucumbers on hand, then pickled cucumbers will do. The same number of them is taken.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef (fillet) – half a kilo;
• pickled/pickled cucumbers – 130-150 g;
• onion – 2 heads;
• mustard – 1 tbsp. l.;
• tomato paste – 65-70 g;
• sour cream – 270-300 g;
• flour – 1.5 tbsp. l.;
• oil, dill, salt.

Both sweet and spicy mustard are equally suitable for this recipe. It all depends on the tastes of the cook himself. But it is recommended to use high-fat sour cream for this treat. For example, 30%. 5-6 sprigs of fresh dill will be enough.

Step-by-step cooking process

Cooking steps:

1. The meat must be washed under running cold water, and then cut into thin strips. This should be done across the grain. The neater the pieces end up, the more appetizing the dish will look.
2. The dill is washed, dried, and then finely chopped. This can be done conveniently with either a sharp knife or special culinary scissors.

3. The onion needs to be turned into small neat half rings. And then send them to fry in a frying pan in oil.
4. Cucumbers should be chopped into thin strips. This must be done along the entire length of each pickled/salted vegetable. Afterwards you can mix with fried onions. It is best to drain the marinade released during the process.
5. Each piece of meat is dredged in flour. Afterwards they are also sent to fry in a separate frying pan. Cook the beef with the lid tightly closed until tender.
6. All that remains is to add pickled cucumbers and onions to the already fully prepared meat. The selected mustard, tomato paste, sour cream, and dill are also sent there. You should immediately salt the treat. If desired, it can be simmered in its present form. But it’s better to pour boiling water over the food. This will give you more flavorful gravy.

After stirring, the treat should be simmered for about a quarter of an hour. As for spices, any colored peppers, curry, or paprika go well with it.

Beef Stroganoff: classic recipe with mushrooms

Another recipe for beef stroganoff for the oven. Here you can use any mushrooms, but wild mushrooms will need to be boiled.

• 500 g beef;

• 200 g of onion;

• 300 g of mushrooms;

• spices and flour;

• 1 clove of garlic;

• 300 g sour cream.

1. Cut the beef, roll the pieces in flour and fry in a frying pan on both sides. Let's remove it.

2. Cut the mushrooms and also fry in a frying pan, a few minutes are enough.

3. Onions can also be fried, but not necessary. It's enough to just cut it thinly.

4. Mix sour cream and garlic, season with spices, add chopped tomato.

5. Place half the meat in a fireproof dish or just a pot, then half the onions and mushrooms, pour over half the sauce. Repeat layers.

6. Cover the dish or simply cover it with foil. Cook at 180 degrees for 60-80 minutes.

With bell pepper

Beef bistrogon will be deliciously prepared with the addition of sweet pepper. Other vegetables are also used as a treat. For example, onions and carrots. It's worth getting more of them. If you want a spicy, spicy gravy, adjika is good for this. And additional spices - thyme, basil, paprika.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef pulp - half a kilo;
• carrots and sweet peppers – 3 pcs.;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• olive oil and butter – 40 g each;
• sour cream of any fat content - 1 tbsp.;
• adjika – 1-1.5 tbsp. l.;
• tomato paste – 6-7 tbsp. l.;
• salt.

Step-by-step cooking process

Cooking steps:

1. If the beef was frozen, then before starting cooking it should not be completely defrosted. Let the meat still retain its shape, then it will be much more convenient to cut it into thin portions.
2. Already chopped beef can be placed in a frying pan with butter. You need to cook it over high heat, stirring frequently, for several minutes. It's a quick process. The meat pieces should have time to brown on all sides.
3. When the beef has already released its juice, you should leave it in the pan for another couple of minutes, then drain all the liquid along with the oil into a separate bowl. This juice will come in handy later in the recipe.
4. The beef needs to cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently. After about 2.5-3 minutes it should become soft with a grayish tint.
5. The finished meat is covered with a lid and set aside while the other ingredients are prepared.
6. Peeled carrots are processed with a coarse grater.

7. Chop the onion finely enough. Afterwards, both components are transferred to a frying pan with oil and fried until light golden brown.
8. It is necessary to remove the seeds, stem, and internal partitions from sweet peppers. The remaining part will be cut into thin strips.
9. All prepared vegetables and beef must be mixed in a common frying pan. Then put sour cream, tomato paste, adjika on top and cover everything with a small amount of water. This is necessary to make the sauce slightly runny. After stirring, it remains to simmer the treat over low heat for about 6 minutes.
10. All that remains is to add meat juice with butter, salt, and spices. The dish will be completely ready after about a quarter of an hour of simmering on low heat under the lid.

The delicacy turns out to be especially tasty if you let it sit for 12-14 minutes on a cooling stove. Afterwards, you can place the dish on plates and sprinkle each with chopped onions. Potatoes or any cereal will be a hearty side dish for it.

With bechamel sauce

Milk-based white sauce goes well with different types of meat. It’s also delicious to simmer beef in it. But you need to be prepared that this will be a long process. But the result will definitely please any gourmet.

Ingredients

For the dish you need to take:

• beef tenderloin – 760-800 g;
• milk – 350-400 ml;
• sour cream - 1 tbsp.;
• tomato paste – 3 tsp;
• flour - 4 tbsp. l.;
• butter – 45-50 g;
• onion – 130-150 g;
• salt, spices.

Step-by-step cooking process

The cooking process includes several stages:

1. It is best to start the process with white sauce. A saucepan or small frying pan is suitable for it. The dishes must have a thick bottom and walls.
2. Place the butter in the selected container. When the fat is completely melted, you can add flour. It is advisable to do this through a fine sieve so that there are fewer lumps in the sauce later. Flour will be an excellent thickener for sauce.
3. It is necessary that the components warm up well.
4. Afterwards you can pour milk into the container. It shouldn't be cold. It is better to warm up the dairy product in advance. Pour in the milk in a thin stream and immediately stir vigorously with a whisk. The sauce will begin to thicken immediately. It will be possible to observe this process.

5. Sour cream is added to the already thickened milk base. After the next stirring, the mass needs to be warmed up.
6. To ensure that the sauce ends up with an appetizing pinkish color, you should use tomato paste. The latter needs to be chosen of high quality. To do this, the composition of the product is studied. It should only contain tomatoes and salt.
7. All that remains is to add salt and heat the mixture, stirring frequently. Next the sauce will be ready.
8. While the Bechamel is infusing, you can work on the onions. It is peeled and cut into thin slices lengthwise. Afterwards, the vegetable pieces must be fried until golden brown in any fat and transferred to a separate plate.
9. For meat, it is best to choose tenderloin with thin and tender meat. It should be chopped into cubes across the grain. This cutting option is required for the dish under discussion.
10. Any fat is sent to the container in which the onions were cooked. It is best to take a mixture of vegetable and butter. This is where the beef goes. The first couple of minutes should not be stirred so that the meat does not lose its juiciness.
11. Afterwards you can salt and pepper the beef. It should be continued to fry for no more than 3 minutes so as not to dry out the meat.
12. Then it’s time to mix the meat with onions, pour in the white sauce and let it boil. The treat is completely ready and you can serve it to the table.

It is advisable to place each portion of the dish in a deep bowl. You can sprinkle them with chopped herbs on top. Any dry side dish will also go well with the treat.

Beef stroganoff cooking technique

You take the tenderloin, place it on a cutting board, then cut the meat into circles 2-3 centimeters thick. In general, you can stop here. The cooks of all decent Western restaurants stop here - the larger the piece, the easier it is to retain the juice in a piece of meat.

Meat properly cut for beef stroganoff

So, if you want to cook a fancy version of beef stroganoff , thoroughly dry the resulting circles of meat and put them in a clean bag. Add a couple of tablespoons of wheat flour and a pinch of fine salt to the same bag and mix the meat with flour and salt using rubbing and massaging movements. Then place the meat in a dry colander and lightly toss the pieces several times - this way you will get rid of excess flour. Look, the circles of meat are completely dry, all muscle fibers are securely blocked.

A convenient way to coat meat in flour to prepare beef stroganoff

Place a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over high heat. When it is very hot, grease its surface with vegetable or butter. After three minutes, start frying the meat. Do not place the mugs very tightly, leaving gaps of about a centimeter - and it does not matter if all the meat does not fit in one go. When you place the last circle, pause for a minute, and then start turning the circles over to the other side, in the same order as you laid them.

Frying meat in a frying pan

A minute after all the mugs have been turned over, start transferring them one by one to the plate. They look like they are varnished. Therefore, I believe that the described method is the best.

The well-known Elena Molokhovets cuts the meat for beef stroganoff into large cubes (and I can somehow explain this - the cube fries evenly, looks nice and behaves quite predictably in the plate). In modern Russian everyday life, for some reason, it is customary to cut meat into strips no more than a centimeter thick. I don’t understand why it’s so shallow. To be honest, I generally prefer the medallions described above - they don’t require as much virtuosity as with meat noodles.

However, the meat can be cut however you like. The main thing is that during frying it does not release juice, but is sealed. You can find hundreds of photos on the Internet depicting roasting meat for beef stroganoff . As a rule, in these photos the meat is floating in a brown boiling liquid - this should not happen under any circumstances. Fry the meat in small portions, after rolling it in flour, in a very hot frying pan - and everything will work out.

Useful tips and tricks

The following tips will help you prepare the dish under discussion deliciously according to any chosen recipe:

• It is most convenient to cut frozen meat - then you will be able to make neat pieces (after chopping, you can leave the beef to defrost completely).
• When meat is placed in a hot frying pan, it is not recommended to stir it for the first couple of minutes. This is necessary to keep the juice inside.

• The beef in the proposed options turns out delicious not only immediately after cooking, but even the next day, so you can safely plan it for lunch in advance.

Today there are many successful recipes for bistrogon or beef stroganoff. Even novice housewives can cook it deliciously. Detailed step-by-step recipes will help with this.

Cooking process

The first step is to cut the meat, the thickness of the pieces should be about 1 centimeter. Beat the meat a little through cling film, after this procedure the pieces will be about 0.5 cm thick. Then the beef should be cut into cubes. Note! Beef needs to be cut across the grain, then the cooked meat will be juicy and soft.

Take onions, peel them and rinse them. Cut into strips and fry in a frying pan until golden brown with the addition of butter. Then add a spoonful of flour and mix thoroughly, cook for another 1-2 minutes. Then add the required amount of sour cream and tomato paste to the onion and mix. Add about 100 ml of water; the sauce should not be too thin. Cook the ingredients over low heat for several minutes until the gravy reduces slightly.

Meanwhile, take a second frying pan and pour some vegetable oil into it. Heat well, then add the meat, fry on all sides and turn off the heat. Transfer the prepared beef into the frying pan with the sauce, mix everything well and simmer for 3-5 minutes over low heat.

Serve beef stroganoff with sour cream along with boiled potatoes or rice. When serving, sprinkle the dish generously with chopped parsley.