Beef Stroganoff

RECIPE, SERVES 4-6

• 2 lb (907g) beef tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin and cut in bite-size chunks
• 2-3 shallots, peels and minced
• 1 lb (474g) white button mushrooms, trimmed and cut in half (I skipped this, FYI)
• 1/2 cup (118gmL) cognac or other brown liquor (optional)
• 2 cups (473mL) stock
• 8 oz (236mL) sour cream (you might not need all of it)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (you might not need all of it)
• mustard
• salt
• pepper
• sweet paprika
• any other spices you want (I used garlic powder)
• fresh herbs for garnish (I used thyme)
• 12 oz (340g) dry egg noodles
• oil
• butter

1. Either before you cook the meat or while you're cooking the meat, boil the egg noodles in salted water and cook them a minute or two less than what the package recommends. Drain, then melt in a little butter to keep them from sticking to each other. Cover and they'll hold until you're ready to eat.
2. Season the beef chunks heavily with salt and pepper and coat in oil. Fry the meat in a very hot pan in 2-3 batches, getting the pieces as a brown as possible without fully cooking them. Dump them out to a plate.
3. If you're doing the mushrooms, put some more oil in the pan and fry the mushrooms until brown and they've shrunk by about a third. Dump them out to a plate.
4. Put some more oil in the pan and fry the shallots for a couple minutes until soft. Deglaze the pan with the liquor (or stock), then pour in the stock.
5. Disperse the cornstarch in a small amount of cool water or stock until smooth, then slowly drizzle some of it into the stock while stirring aggressively. Boil to gelatinize the starch and keep adding slurry until the sauce is a little thicker than you want it in the end (the sour cream will thin the sauce out a bit).
6. Stir in as much sour cream as you want — it'll need to melt before you can stir it in smooth.
7. Flavor the sauce to taste with mustard, salt & pepper, paprika and other spices. Stir in the beef (along with any resting juices) and mushrooms, and let simmer for a couple minutes until the meat is hot and cooked through. Stir in fresh herbs at the last second. Serve over egg noodles.