I saw my co-worker eating beef stroganoff for lunch the other day and thought it was weird that I’ve never tried to make it before. So I got home and started researching all of the different variations of this classic dish. I decided to go the fancier route and use beef tenderloin as my cut of meat (because yum), and try to up my game a little by adding in some shiitake mushrooms and kale to the mix. I present to you, my "fancier" beef stroganoff.

Beef Stroganoff

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
Yield: Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

1.5lbs beef tenderloin, cut into bite sized cubes
1 tbsp. paprika
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
4 tbsp. butter
1 yellow onion, finely sliced
3 cups mushrooms (I used a mix of button and shiitake)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
4 tbsp. flour
2 cups beef consommé (condensed soup)
½ cup red wine
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. Worcestershire
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
4 cups kale, washed, stemmed and cut into bite sized pieces
340g egg noodles
Chopped parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS

Coat beef in paprika, salt and pepper. Preheat oil in a large Dutch oven (or large sauce pot) over high heat. Brown the meat on all sides then remove with a slotted spoon, place on a plate and set aside. The meat will sweat out some of those juices but be sure to keep them for later! That’s where some great flavor is hiding.

Turn down the heat to medium, and add in 4 tbsp. of butter. Add onions, and cook for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, and cook until browned (approx. 12-15 minutes). Stir in garlic & thyme and sauté for 1 minute of until fragrant. Pour the juices in from the reserved steak bites back into the pot and stir in the flour. Add beef consommé and red wine, and stir until combined. Reduce the heat to low and stir in Dijon mustard and Worcestershire and simmer until the sauce has thickened and coats the mushrooms, about 15 minutes.

While the stroganoff is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the egg noodles according to package instructions, strain and set aside.

This part is important. I read a lot of complaints about the stroganoff sauce splitting when you add in the sour cream. One way to avoid this is to use crème fraiche instead of sour cream but a lot of the time this is not easy to find. Another technique is to temper the sour cream. This means, get the temperature of the sour cream to slowly warm up to the heat of the mixture it is being added to before dumping it in. Put the room temperature sour cream in a large bowl, and ladle about ¼ cup of hot beef stroganoff sauce into the sour cream, and combine. Then add the tempered sour cream to the main event. Finally, stir in the kale and the steak bites into the pot until the kale is wilted and the beef is heated thoroughly.

Serve on a bed of egg noodles and garnish with fresh parsley and an additional dollop of sour cream (optional).