If you were an 80’s baby like myself or even older, you would understand the reference in the title. If you were born sooner than later then don’t worry about understanding it, YOLO! Beef stroganoff has been one of my favorite meals since that little four-fingered talking white glove on the commercials started packaging it in a family size box. Again, if you don’t understand that reference, than you were too young to understand the first one as well. I’m talking about Hamburger Helper! I admit that between ramen noodles and hamburger helper, my weeknights were pretty packed with quick 10 minute dinners during college. I graduated to making beef stroganoff like a big girl without the box in my early 20’s. I dated a guy who’s family was straight from Germany, Düsseldorf to be exact. His mom would pronounce W’s as V’s with a thick German accent through a cigarette smoke haze. When she would make this for us I would watch carefully taking mental notes along the way. Every time she made it it was different. When I was daring enough to finally try this out on my own, I eventually figured it out with trial and error and was able to ditch the boxed dinner! Tonight I am making this with beef short ribs. She always opted for strips of beef, similar to those you would use for fajitas or even steak tips, you can too. Tonight I wanted to take it to another level because the short ribs just called my name through the foggy glass at the meat counter. 

WARNING: If you are opting for short ribs like I did, this recipe is going to take a while since the short ribs need time in the oven to become fall of the bone fork-tender about 2 1/2-3 hours. Low and slow or else you are going to get a tough piece of meat. If you choose to use beef strips of cuts of beef instead, cook them in the same large skillet you are making the sauce in. Alternative direction will follow this recipe.

Here’s what you’ll need:

6 bone-in short ribs approx 2Lbs (you can also use cubed beef tips or beef strips that are cut to about 2 inches long and 1/2 in thick)
salt & pepper to season

parpadelle noodles or extra wide egg noodles
liberal amount of Kosher salt for boiling water

3 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 extra tablespoons needed if you chose to use beef tips/strips)
1 small onion finely diced, about 1/2 cup
1lb of assorted mushrooms tops only, sliced thin; I prefer baby portabella & crimini mushrooms
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup beef stock
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream (I used nonfat plain Greek yogurt as my sour cream substitute to cut calories. I’ll explain later in another blog post. If you are not already doing this, it will change your life)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 tablespoons chopped parsley for garnish

Preheat oven 300 degrees F. Season all sides of each short rib with salt and pepper. Place short ribs in a shallow roasting pan and cover with aluminum foil. Roast for 2.5-3 hours until meat starts to pull away from the bone. Remove aluminum foil and let the meat brown for another 15 minutes in the oven.

This is usually when I start to make the sauce and get the noodles ready. Bring a large stock pot with very salted water to a boil and cook noodles according to packaging.

*Before moving on please see notes below if you opted for beef tips or strips. If you are using short ribs, continue on with the following directions.

In a large skillet on medium high heat, melt butter and sauté onions starting to sweat them out. After 2-3 minutes add the mushrooms and cook until softened, 3 more minutes.

Sprinkle in flour and whisk together, cooking for about a minute. Slowly add wine and beef stock while whisking up all those nice flavor bits off the bottom of the pan. Let this reduce down a little. It will only take a few minutes. Now stir in heavy cream, mustard, and sour cream (or Greek yogurt). Reduce heat to low and let sauce thicken. Don’t be alarmed at the color, at this point you will have this purplish-brown cream sauce and that’s what you are looking for. Season with about a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper. If you opted for the beef tips/strips this is when you add them back to the sauce until warmed through. Assemble sauce on top of cooked noodles with a couple of the roasted short ribs and garnish with parsley. Now serve.

*Before you start adding the mushrooms and the onions, let’s start browning the beef in batches. In the large skillet on medium high heat start with melting 2 tablespoons of butter. In batches, add beef to the pan, you don’t want them to crowd the skillet. If crowding happens, just like a crowded party people start to sweat, and the beef will not brown properly and instead they will more so boil without any coloring on them. If this happens drain excess liquid and add another tablespoon of butter to the pan and start all over. It’s ok! This has happened to me before when I started out! Things like this happen, it’s not the end of the world! Just take a couple swigs of that bottle of red wine and move on! Now brown the remaining meat all over and remove to a plate and set aside, you don’t have to cook them all the way through because we will be adding them to the sauce again to reheat and we don’t want them to over cook. Using the  same skillet, continue following the directions above.

This recipe serves 2-3 depending on how hungry everyone is.

Please feel free to leave a comment down below if you have any questions!

Masarap!