Primal Beef Stroganoff

Primal Beef Stroganoff

Beef Strogonoff is one of my favorite winter meals, for family or for guests

This is SERIOUSLY good, elegant, and actually quite easy!

We try for grass-fed, hormone-free beef--the difference in nutritional value is startling, compared to feedlot animals!  Much, MUCH higher in Omega 3s...I like to think of  the cattle out there peacefully grazing, anyway, like the ones we see as we drive home to our small town.

It's not that expensive, especially if you go in with another family or two and buy direct from the farmer. 


Here's my usual recipe:

1 lb. stew-cut beef (give or take...the package we got today was about a pound and a quarter)
1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 large clove of garlic
4 ounces crimini or other mushrooms, sliced--we got them on sale, two packages for $4, so used one and saved one for another dish.
2 T butter
8 oz. water or broth, also give or take--enough to cover the meat and vegetables
1/2 cup white wine or dry sherry (optional)

1/2 cup sour cream--organic, if you can find it.
1/4 cup unflavored Greek yogurt or heavy cream--again, organic if possible

Sea salt, a sprinkle of fancy paprika and black or mixed pepper to taste

I sautee'd the onions and garlic in butter till golden, with a few browned edges, and removed them from the pan. Then I added the beef and let it brown a little, till the watery liquid had cooked away and turned a deliciously dark, rich brown--don't let it burn, though!

The onion and garlic go back into the pan with the beef and water or broth; meanwhile, I sautee'd the mushrooms in another pan till golden, and added them to the beef mixture.  (Deglaze the mushroom pan with a little of the beef broth--you don't want to lose any of that deliciousness!)

The meat has simmered in the broth till tender, along with mushrooms and onions...

Add the salt and pepper and a dash of paprika, if you like.  Then add the optional wine or sherry and simmer with a lid on till the meat is tender--an hour or two, or all day in the crock pot or slow cooker. 

Remove the lid and reduce the stock by about half, then add the sour cream and yogurt.  (Or you can use one or the other of these, depending on what you have on hand.)

Serve over steamed cauliflower, if you wish, or just pile on your plate or in a shallow bowl.  If you don't mind the carbs, you can use white potatoes or noodles, but I've cut way back on that stuff and feel much better for it!

I served it with a carrot salad, and we're both quite happily stuffed...er, I mean, satisfied!