Work night fast dinner: Beef Stroganoff and a successful substitute

Do you remember the Filet of Beef au Poivre that I posted on Sunday night? I had one piece of tenderloin steak left so I decided to turn this into beef stroganoff. There are several versions, one which includes paprika and dill. I love dill, but my boys aren't as crazy about it. So, I went with my tried and true recipe version from Cook's Illustrated. Filet mignon can be costly, but I find that Costco sells a good quality filet at a very reasonable price-- so I buy it in bulk, and freeze it. While you don't have to use tenderloin steak, I highly recommend using a very tender cut of beef, because this is a fast dinner that doesn't allow for braising. The last thing you want is to be chewing rubbery meat. Gross. Back to this one pan dinner recipe...

The prep time took the most time-- slicing the tenderloin, chopping onion and mushrooms. I had to measure beef and chicken stock (Cook's Illustrated prefers a combo of both, saying the flavors meld together well, and I do agree), tomato paste (which I buy in a tube so I don't have to store or freeze the rest of a can), brown sugar and sour cream...

(No photos of my ingredients, because it's a work night and I'm flying in my kitchen!)

I started a pot of water and cooked egg noodles, according to package directions.

Wait! I didn't have sour cream, and I always do! Aaaaaack! I had a tub of Fage Brand Greek Yogurt, which is my favorite brand. I find it at Trader Joe's and the Fat-Free is thick and rich. So that's what I used.

My cast iron skillet is decades old, but it's well seasoned and I have really bonded with it...

I began by browning the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil and then setting this into a bowl.

Next, I seared the filet strips with a pat of unsalted butter, and then added this to the mushrooms. The pan is deglazed with the beef stock, reduced and then added to the mushrooms and beef strips.

Next, into the skillet the butter, onion, tomato paste and brown sugar is added and cooked until tender-- just a few minutes. Last, the flour is added and cooked for a minute or two.

The chicken stock and white wine is added, and allowed to thicken for a few more minutes... and then the beef stock and liquid from the mushrooms and beef strips is incorporated back into the sauce. This is the point that I wanted to add fresh dill (which is growing in my herb garden), but my boys would have pouted. I think it would have been delicious.

For the final step, some of this sauce is added to the sour cream (or in my case, the yogurt) to temper it so it doesn't curdle-- then the mushrooms and beef are added into the sauce and warmed up.

Once the egg noodles were drained, I added some butter into the pot, returned the noodles into it and at the very end, I added fresh parsley from my herb garden.

I'd say this took 40 minutes from start to finish. If I had a prep cook, I could have shaved off 10 minutes...but I'm not a celebrity chef, if you know what I mean.

I particularly like making this fast meal in the winter-- true comfort food!

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