Food You Can Eat: Julia Child’s Beef Stroganoff

Oh, I’m sorry, this is Sauté de Boeuf à la Parisienne. I’ve covered Beef Stroganoff https://deadsplinter.com/food-you-can-eat-beef-stroganoff/ already, but that is rookie beef stroganoff. Recently I had to swing for the fences because I was in the doghouse with Better Half. For three nights I decided to get in his good graces by making dinners that I knew he particularly enjoyed, like Beef Stroganoff, so I trotted out, what else, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and got to work. I had made this a couple of times before and my copy has some slight stainage to prove it, so I wasn’t exactly flying blind. I offered to get an additional dog but that is not his preferred choice of reparations.

This looks daunting but it’s really not, and it goes quickly, comparatively. Because it is a Julia Child recipe you will be offering much needed support to our beleaguered dairy farmers.

You do three things: you make a mushroom preparation, you work the beef, and you make a sauce. I’ve mildly adapted this so that it serves 2, but it makes a good amount of sauce. This is fine because what I did was serve it over a big bed of egg noodles, steamed some baby carrots, and toasted a baguette and used the sauce for all that, too.

Allons!

——————————-

Do the mushrooms first.

In a cast-iron skillet heat 2 tbsp butter and a little olive oil. Add about six oz.-worth of sliced mushrooms, about 2 1/2 cups (I used mini portobellos, because that’s what I had) and sauté for about 5 minutes until they’re slightly browned. Stir in 3 tbsp. of minced shallots OR green onion (I used up my last green onion) and let this go for another minute. Shake in a little salt and pepper. With a spatula, scrape all of this into a bowl and set aside.

Now for the beef.

Cut approx. 1 1/2 lbs. tenderloin butt (so the good stuff; this is used to make filet mignon) into cubes, 2” X 1/2” thick. Pat them dry with a paper towel. [Matt’s note: You don’t do the easy thing and pat your tenderloin butt dry and then cube it, because in the cubing process you’ll get juices, so you need to do this post-cubing.] To the skillet add 2 more tbsp. butter and a little more olive oil and put the heat up to medium-high. Sear the cubes on both sides 2—3 minutes each so they’re browned but not entire cooked through yet. Remove the beef and throw that on a plate somewhere. Clean out the remnants in the skillet.

And now the sauce.

Mix 2 tsp. cornstarch with 1 tbsp. whipping cream and hang onto it. Pour 1/4 cup [Julia says Madeira is best but dry white vermouth is OK; I had the vermouth so I used that] and 3/4 cups beef stock (this is different from beef broth, so pay attention to the label) into the long-suffering skillet and boil it until it’s at least 50% reduced. Julia says to do this until only 1/3 cup remains, so 66%, and I did my best. Since you’re using beef stock and not broth there will be bits that you will need to scrape from the bottom. Now beat in 1 cup of whipping cream and that cornstarch/cream mix you made. Why, I have absolutely no idea, but I will not second guess Madame Child. Simmer this for 1 minute. Add the mushroom mixture and simmer for 1 minute more. Because of the cornstarch the sauce should thicken a little. But why the extra step of mixing with cream and “Taste carefully for seasoning.” This is a little on the salty side but I didn’t want to do the old “add a teeny bit of flour” trick lest I be struck by a thunderbolt. 

You’re seeing the finish line at this point. Start boiling water in a pasta pot.

Julia says to season the beef with a little salt and pepper but I didn’t, see above, add it to the skillet with any juices that may have collected on its plate, and baste it with the sauce. Cover the skillet and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. 

When you cover the skillet, the water should be boiling so add egg noodles. I used I think about 12 oz. Start steaming some baby carrots and turn the oven to 350 degrees. The clock is ticking!

When the skillet has finally exhausted itself, turn the heat off but leave it right where it is. Everything will keep cooking a little bit longer. Drain the noodles and plate them. Throw the baguette in the oven on a baking sheet. Spread the steamed carrots on a paper towel to get rid of some of the moisture. Add the Beef Stroganoff to the top of the egg noodle mounds. Arrange the carrots whimsically on the plate. Pour the sauce from the skillet all over this. Move the plates to the table. Cut the baguettes into quarters or eighths, it doesn’t matter, because you’ll be tearing it apart by hand, and put that on a plate between you and the glowering Better Half. Over the course of the unusually unchatty dinner sense a thaw. Mission Accomplished! Thanks Julia!