It’s late October in Minnesota, which means very cool nights, and lately we’ve been getting quite a bit of moisture too. There is nothing worse than humid cold weather- it sinks in and chills the bones. Brr. Cue in the need for something warm and delicious for dinner and voila- Stroganoff! Not only does it warm, but in my case it wins me bonus point, as it’s the man’s favorite meal!
This spring I picked quite a few morel mushrooms and we were so busy eating fresh food all summer that we haven’t really gotten to eat them too much, so I decided to make this meal all the more savory by using wild morel mushrooms, picked from the farm as our go-to mushroom.
They give it an amazing earthy taste, although you miss out on some of that nice moisture that a fresh mushroom gives off. I used some dried shiitake mushrooms that I had as well, just so I (selfishly) wouldn’t use up all my morels on one meal!
Morel Mushroom Stroganoff
My recipe originated with this fantastic one from chef Marc Matsumoto with variations to the mushrooms, as well as the amount of sauce. I really like the sauce part of any meal, but especially stroganoff, so expect more than is probably normal!
This recipe starts with the meat, so put the above ingredients aside and get cooking!
Brown the beef in 2 Tbsp. of melted butter. Do not add the beef until the butter is fully melted and hot. You don’t want to cook the meat too much, just enough to get it a bit brown on all sides, but not the center. Once browned, quickly remove beef and set aside.
You’re using morels- want to make it even more “foraged friendly”? Why not try using venison chops instead of beef. Equally delicious.
Place beef in a bowl or rimmed cookie sheet so that it collects all the juices. You’ll want all the juicy flavor for later!
While your meat is cooking place the dried mushrooms in a bowl with water. The amount doesn’t matter, as you will be draining it off, though you don’t want to lose all that flavor, so don’t put in more than a 3/4 cup.
If you have fresh wild mushrooms then you can skip this step. The problem for me is that I always want stroganoff when it’s cold; which means that there are no fresh wild mushrooms for me to harvest; which means I have to use dried ones.
Place chopped onions in the same pot and cook until slightly softened. Then add wild mushrooms and cook down until there is no liquid remaining in the pot. You’ll start to see some of that sticky brown frond (Where all the best flavor stays) sticking to the bottom of the pan- this is good, that’s where all the flavor is.
Once all the moisture has been evaporated away add the white wine to the onion and mushroom mixture. Using the moisture of the wine you can then scrape up all that frond off of the pan and mix it into the wine with everything else.
Boil wine down until there is very little left. Then add the mustard and beef broth to the mix. Cook down until it’s about half of that with which you originally started. Add the meat and all its collected juices.
As the liquid mixture slowly cooks and reduces mix the flour into your sour cream so that there are no clumps and it’s all smooth and thick.
Add some of the hot liquid to the sour cream to bring it up in temperature and prevent curdling.
Add the sour cream and flour mix to the wild mushroom liquid mix and stir to quickly disperse the sour cream throughout. Stroganoff is ready when it thickens!
Best when served over egg noodles, but also good on its own or on rice.
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- 2 lbs. Beef Tenderloin
- 2 Tbsp. Butter
- 1.5 cup Wild Mushrooms morel, shiitake, etc.
- 1 Onion
- 2.5 cup Beef Broth
- 1/2 cup Dry White Wine
- 2 tsp. Whole-Grain Mustard
- 3/4 cup Sour Cream
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- Cooked Egg Noodles for serving
Ingredients
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- Generously salt and pepper the beef. Melt 2 Tbsp. of butter in a pan, when it's hot add a layer of the beef and cook until it's browned on one side. Stir and cook a little longer, but do not cook beef completely through. Transfer to a bowl or a rimmed cookie sheet. If necessary repeat with remaining meat.
- Place dried wild mushrooms in a small amount of water to moisten. Add onions to pot and cook until slightly softened. Drain mushrooms and add to pot.
- Cook until there is no more liquid in the pot and you have quite a bit of brown fond stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the dry white wine and stir. Scrape up the fond so that it mixes into the liquid.
- Boil the wine until most of the liquid is gone, and then add the mustard and beef stock. Continue to boil until the liquid has reduced by half.
- Meanwhile, mix sour cream with flour so that it is smooth, with no lumps. Set aside.
- Lower the heat and return the beef to pan along with any collected juices. Stir some of the hot liquid into the sour cream mixture. This will help prevent it from curdling when added to the hot liquid mixture.
- Add the sour cream mixture and stir quickly to help even distribute everything. Allow to cook on low until sauce thickens. Serve on cooked egg noodles.