Ground Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff

I love ground beef and mushroom stroganoff.  It is such a simple meal, but it is so very satisfying.  It is such a great comfort food to me.  I used to cook my ground beef, throw in a can of mushroom soup and a cup of sour cream and call it a day.  But as I was looking through my vintage cookbooks, I knew there had to be a better way.  The old cookbooks gave a lot of inspiration, but they didn’t deal with ground beef, but rather strips of steak or chunks of beef.  I didn’t have any of those cuts, besides I grew up eating ground beef stroganoff, so that is what I wanted.

A few things about this recipe – I wanted to boost the nutrition up without altering the flavor too much.  Liver and heart are such powerhouses of nutrition, so I added small amounts of those.  Not enough to change the flavor, but hopefully enough to make a difference, however small, nutritionally.  If you want to, you can eave those out, but you might want to increase how much ground beef you use.

There are a few reasons I included those organs.  The first is that the more aware I become of the industrialized food chain and our society’s disconnect from where our food comes from, the more involved I get in food activism, I feel like if I am going to eat an animal’s meat (which I do because it works for me and I feel healthier in doing so), I should respect the animal and use every part of it’s body.  Not just the choice muscles.  I put the bones in stock, and people used to eat organ meat a lot more frequently, so why can’t I?

As for nutrition, organ meats are fantastic sources of vitamins A and D.  It is a great source of CoQ10 which is getting a lot of press these days in the supplement world.  Personally, I always prefer to get something from a whole food source.  Additionally, iron, vitamin B12 are found in organ meats, and so much more.  Check out what the Weston A. Price Foundation has to say about liver.

And always, always get your beef grass fed (and most importantly, grass FINISHED).  Personally, that is more important to me than the organic label, as grass fed/finished cows are frequently organic without the certification, but an organic cow could have been fed massive amounts of corn and soy, which are not part of its natural diet.  Grass fed cows have more omega 3 in their meat and a special fatty acid called CLA which helps protect against cancer (among other things).  Get to know your farmer.  That way you can make the best decision about your food.

Please keep in mind that you should play around with the flavors in this recipe to suit your own tastes.  Like a more onion-y or garlic-y flavor?  Add more ramps and/or garlic.  And so on.  Also, I did not have worcestershire sauce, so I approximated the flavor with my own ingredients.  Feel free to just use worcestershire sauce, or play around with my proportions to make it sweeter, saltier, tangier, etc.   Just be sure to use traditionally fermented soy sauce, as soy has anti-nutrients such as phytic acid that are only removed during fermentation.

A final note, sometimes flavors take time to mingle.  I found that this was the perfect leftover food as it tasted even better the second day!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 Large portobello mushroom caps
• 3 tablespoons Ghee
• 1 lb Ground beef (grass fed!)
• 1/4 lb Ground beef heart (grass fed!)
• 1/8 lb Liver, chopped finely or ground (grass fed!)
• 2 Ramps, minced (if no ramps are available, use 2 cloves of garlic)
• 1 1/2 cup Sour cream
• 3 tablespoons Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon Fish sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon Soy sauce (must be traditionally fermented)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Sherry vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Molasses
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parsley (to garnish)
• cooked egg noddles or boiled potatoes or something to serve the stroganoff on

(Note – the fish sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and molasses can be replaced by about 1 and a half tablespoons of worcestershire sauce)

Instructions:

This recipe has a lot of ingredients, but see the note above, if you have worcestershire sauce, you can simplify a bit.  It is still pretty easy to do.  Put the ghee in a skillet or frying pan on medium or med-high and melt it.  Chop up the portobellos into strips and cook them until they have shrunk in size and are completely soft.  Take them out of the pan and set aside.  Leave whatever left over ghee is still in the pan.  A little extra is good for the ground beef.

Now add your ground beef and organs if you are using them.  Turn the temp on medium, or even medium low and stir frequently.  When it has cooked through, add the mushrooms back in and add the ramps.  Stir it up a bit, mix it up, then in comes the sour cream.  It is going to get a little liquidy.  That is ok.  Keep it on low, you don’t want to get dairy products too hot.  Add the flour to thicken it a bit, and then add the fish sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and molasses (or worcestershire sauce if you are using it instead).  Salt and pepper to taste, and that is it!  Serve over cooked egg noodles or boiled potatoes witha  little chopped parsley on the top.

Tags: beef, dairy, recipe