Braised Short Rib Stroganoff

Two things inspired me to make this light summer dish (laughing out loud) last night... browned mushrooms and a cookbook:



I love golden brown, buttery mushrooms. I could eat a bowl of them for a snack. And Julia Child (fine, the movie Julie & Julia) taught me two very important things about browning mushrooms: never crowd them and use lots of butter. Mushrooms, like meat, need to be touching the pan in order to properly brown, so I saute them in batches. Also, they are sponges, and will absorb oil and butter very quickly, so use lots. You can pretend I'm making you.

Next, the cookbook. My dad bought it for me and until last night, I've only been using it as a beautiful coffee table book. When I opened it up the other day to find a braised short rib stroganoff recipe I came close to chewing on the pages.

I took the basic steps of this recipe and sort of did my own thing. I highly recommend you try it, but maybe wait until you're trying to fatten up for winter? (You're a bear, right?)

Braised Short Rib Stroganoff
Recipe adapted from Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
(Serves 8)
Printable Recipe

2 lbs. short ribs
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for mushrooms
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 cup red wine
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs rosemary, 2 sprigs thyme
1 lb. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, diced
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 T unsalted butter, plus more for mushrooms
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup creme freche
1 lb. tagliatelle or pappardelle pasta
Salt and pepper
Grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 350. In a large oven-safe pot or Dutch oven, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium-high heat. Season all sides of short ribs with salt and pepper. Place beef in pot, fat-side down first, and brown for 4-5 minutes per side.



Remove meat from pot and set aside on a plate. Turn heat down to medium. Add onions, carrots and 1 clove of minced garlic to the oil. Saute for 5-6 minutes, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Season with salt, pepper and bay leaf.


Place short ribs back in pot on top of vegetables. Add beef broth, red wine and rosemary and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil, then cover and place pot in oven. Cook for 2-2 1/2 hours, until meat is fork tender and falls off of the bone.



With about an hour left in cooking process, begin cream sauce. Take 4 oz. of the mushrooms and process in food processor until finely chopped. Saute shallots, remaining cloves of garlic and processed mushrooms in 1 T of butter over medium heat for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and dried thyme.


Add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.


While cream is simmering, brown the remaining mushrooms in 3 batches. With each batch, heat approx. 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil over medium heat. Saute mushrooms until golden. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.



Add creme freche to cream sauce and stir until thickened slightly. Once meat is cooked, remove ribs and place on cutting board. Shred meat, discarding the fat. Add to cream sauce, along with browned mushrooms. Stir. Taste. Add salt and pepper if needed.


Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season with salt. Cook pasta for 3-4 minutes, until al dente. Drain and place in large serving bowl. Ladle cream sauce over pasta. (I ended up freezing some of the sauce because it makes a ton!) Serve with grated Parmesan.


And finally, for some trivia, please name the movie:

I never cared for Stroganoff!
She said that like a Romanov!