I always put up the best recipes on my blog (at least best recipes from my kitchen :)), but this Beefstroganoff is going to top all of them. Taste-wise, I would say, this is one of the closest recipes to the original recipe, created by one of the Count Stroganoff’s chefs. In case you are curious about this recipe and a brief history of beefstroganoff, follow along!
Count Stroganoff was a powerful figure in Odessa, Russia. For most of his career, he served as a governor of the city of Odessa and was a very wealthy man. As a tradition of noble citizens of Odessa, Count Stroganoff held a daily “Open table”, where anyone who is educated and well-dressed could come in for lunch right from the street. Beefstroganoff was invented by one of the Count’s chefs, during such an event. It is believed to be a hybrid of Russian-French cuisines and included ingredients such as sliced fried meat, topped up with creamy gravy. Unlike its French counterparts of foods served along with gravy, the beefstroganoff gravy was to be served in the dish, along with the meat (the Russian style).
There are tons of different recipes of Befstroganoff out there and I have tried quite a few of them out. It is not my intention to brag about the recipes I put out on my blog, but this is the best Beefstroganoff recipe you can find – you will absolutely love it, I promise!
Ingredients:
- 1 lb file mignon
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 medium onion
- 2 Tbsp of flour (optional)
- 1 tsp of corn strach
- 1/4 cup of cold water
- 1 cup of tomato sauce (see the list of ingredients below)
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
Ingredients of the tomato sauce:
- 1 cup of pure tomato juice
- 1/4 cup of crushed walnuts
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup of mixed herbs (dills and cilantro), chopped
- 1 tsp of salt
Directions:
Cut filet mignon in 1 inch thick steaks and using a meat tenderizer flatten the meat. Sprinkle a little bit of black pepper on the meat and cut the meat into 1 inch thick strips. Set aside until needed for frying.
Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce for the Beefstroganoff. Mince greens and cloves of garlic, chop walnuts, add all of them to the tomato sauce along with salt and mix all the ingredients together. You can also add a little cayenne pepper. Set aside until needed.
Cut onions in thin half-circles. Dissolve starch in cold water.
On high heat, warm-up the skillet with oil. When well-heated, add the meat and fry until golden. Add onions, saute until onions turn slightly golden. Add tomato sauce, turn the heat down to medium-low and let the meat cook in the tomato sauce for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat heavy cream in a small sauce pan on medium heat and add starch water. Keep stirring the heavy cream until the starch is well incorporated. Add Sour cream and saute for another 2 minutes.
Take down the cream from the heat and pour it on top of the meat mixture and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve beefstroganoff with a side of vegetables or mashed potatoes. I usually make home-made crispy fries. Add some minced garlic and freshly cut dills. Yummy!!!
My dad introduced me to beef stroganoff when I was a child and I LOVED it ever since. Can’t wait to try this recipe when I have the chance ;)
I am again not bragging, but everyone who tries this recipe always ask ask for the recipe. Always! :P Dear, Agnes, I hope you like it, too :)
I always believed that mushrooms are necessary for the beef stroganoff.
But I adore the idea of walnuts and garlic and I will try your recipe some day (still on vacation).
And yes, you should brag about the recipes you put out on your blog!
My Dear Stella!! How I miss your comments :) How are you doing? Thank you for the compliment :D
One thing with mushrooms is that they have a distinct taste. I would not use our usual grocery store button mushrooms for beefstroganoff. They drastically change the taste from what it is in this recipe. But if you happen to have Russian White Mushrooms (which we pick in the parks late august but cannot find it for sale) it is going to be absolutely perfect!
I am so curious if you ever going to like this recipe :P I hope you do. Nuts give it such a rich taste, I was in love!
Hey there , I’m a visitor from Iran and I was searching for Lahmacun recipe – which I ate it at my travel to Turkey a month ago – & I have to say I really adore your blog . Do not stop putting recipes on your blog ! By the way , you have to try some Iranian ( Persian ) food , you will love it !
Dear Kamyar, thank you for visiting my blog. I am glad your lahmacun turned out well :) Visit more often, I am planning on taking on more Turkish dishes. But I would also love if you could forward the recipes of some of your favorite Iranian dishes. I would love to try them out and post them here! :)
sorry about my English , I think I should’ve said ” at my trip ” ! :D
Don’t worry :) English is my 3rd language and I make a lot of silly mistakes. Thank God my husband does the proofing for me :D
Hi Lola,
I’ve not seen a recipe for stroganoff before which didn’t use mushrooms, given how much I hate mushrooms to find this one is great. I look forward to trying this as soon as possible, Tuesday night I think I’ll make it for my wife.
Also interesting to learn the background to the dish, thanks for all your sharing.
Mark.
Mark, Mark, Mark!! Let me know how it turns out. REaaaallyy looking forward to hearing from you soon :)
Hi Lola,
It was delicious. Really superb, although I did have to replace the walnuts with an alternative (I used prunes which worked quite well). Thanks again for the recipe and the very easy to follow method.
Thursday I am trying some of your Uzbek recipes as we have our fortnightly dishes from around the world evening and it’s my turn. Thanks for the inspiration!
Mark.
Hi Lola,
I’m so excited to have found your website! I’ve been looking for recipes for some of my favorite dishes for a long time. I plan to try making chuchvara this weekend. I was wondering if you have a recipe for the garlicky grated carrot salad that I enjoyed so much in Russia and Central Asia. I miss it!
Thank you!
Mira, thank you visiting my food blog! :) I will be posting Markavcha recipe sooner than later. Hopefully really soon :)
Well, I came here to read a review of the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens. But this looks so delicious, I might try to make this instead.
Dear Fabian, I really hope you liked this recipe :D
Can’t wait to make this! Just wondering… for the tomato sauce you say to use “pure tomato juice”. Do you mean similar to V8/juice you can drink or like the plain sauce in the pasta/tomato sauce section? Thanks so much and love your blog!!!
Jaime, thank you for visiting my blog! V8 juice will work perfectly :)
Thank you Lola! I made it and it was delicious!!! :)
loooks delicious and I would like to try it, but can u suggest something instead of the sour cream, because I am not allowed to mix meat and dairy according to my religion. Thank you
Dear Diana, this recipe is specific about meat and dairy mixing together :( I don’t really think it can be substituted. But you gave me a good incentive on trying other recipes of stroganoff without dairy added :)
Hi, i just finished making the beefstroganoff, it doesn’t look like the one in your picture, but it is delicious. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe with everyone.
Greetings from Perú.
trust a photographer to make great food and another photographer to recommend the blog to the photographer friends :) I usually soak the meat overnight in a liter of milk – post-Soviet habit when good meat was rare, can use almost any cuts. And I have the same blue piala – gift from a friend. Lovely photos!
Lola,
Thank you for a lovely recipe. I think I liked it more than the wife and kids, but maybe that’s because I made it. I will make this again.
-S
Thank you for this great recipe! It saved my Thanksgiving. I don’t like turkey & my parents don’t care for it either, so I decided to make this. I modified it slightly, I don’t like any creams (any dairy in fact) so I used “cream of mushroom” instead and left the sour cream on the side for those who like it. I had a lot of compliments :) Thanks to you <3
Dear Janette,
I am glad it turned out well!
hi what is heavy whipping cream?
Love your pictures and am sure it tastes divine! We love Beef Stroganoff too.
As a child I loved eating it with mashed potatoes. ;-) Mama would add mushrooms too. But it’s not original.
Tomato sauce is an interesting addition, it’s another variation. I might try it!
Lola, you use a bit different technique to prepare it, but I am sure it tastes good. .The original recipe is very simple.
A bit of history –
Odessa is in Ukraine, not Russia.
For the open table they were using cheaper meat. To make it soft and juicy, chef cooked meat in cream sauce, and to help it slice nice and thin, the meat was partially frozen.
I don’t know if you understand Russian or Ukrainian. I could share a link to this recipe on Yutube, if you’d like to see how it was originally made. Video helped me too to make it better.