Beef Stroganoff Sandwiches -- When the Week Calls for Something Warm and Hearty

Week 495, and the apples arriving, the squash at the farm stand, the light turning golden, the kitchen shifting to soups and stews. I am 68 years old and the days have a rhythm now — the morning writing, the afternoon visits to Cedarhurst, the evening cooking, the weekly blog post — and the rhythm is the structure, and the structure is the sanity, and the sanity is required because the rest of it, the losing and the loving and the carrying, requires a sane woman at the helm, and I am sane, mostly, except when I cry in the car in the Cedarhurst parking lot, which is not insanity but its opposite: the specific, targeted release of emotion in a contained space, which is the most rational thing I do all week.

Rebecca and Thomas seven years; part of fabric; brisket approved. These are the facts of the week, the data points, the things I would put in a report if I were writing a report, which I am not — I am writing a life, and the life includes the facts but is not limited to them, because the life also includes the way the kitchen smells at six in the morning when the coffee is brewing and the challah is rising and the house is quiet and the quiet is both the grief and the peace, simultaneously, and the simultaneous is the condition, the permanent condition of a woman who is 68 and alone and not alone, who is a grandmother and a wife and a writer and a cook and a caregiver and all of these things at once, always at once, braided together like the challah.

I made brisket this week — because it was what the week needed, because the week always needs something and the something is always food, and the food is always the answer, and the answer is always the kitchen, and the kitchen is always mine, and the mine-ness of the kitchen is the one thing that has not changed in sixty-seven years of living, from Sylvia's kitchen on the Grand Concourse to this kitchen in Oceanside where I stand every morning and every evening and many of the hours in between, making the food that is the chain, that is the love, that is the thing I do when I don't know what else to do, which is always, and especially now.

I brought food to Marvin at the usual time. The visit was what visits are now — quiet, steady, the feeding by hand when necessary, the reading aloud always, the holding of the hand that may or may not know it is being held but that is warm and alive and present, which is the definition of love in this particular year: warm and alive and present. He ate what I brought. He received what I gave. The receiving is the relationship. The receiving is the vow. In sickness and in health, in recognition and in forgetting, in the recliner and in the kitchen, the receiving is the marriage, and the marriage continues, one container at a time, one visit at a time, one day at a time, at two o'clock, every day, because the chain does not break.

Brisket was what this week demanded, and brisket is what I made — but the spirit behind it, the need for something rich and slow and deeply savory, the need to stand at the stove and coax something tender out of something tough, is the same spirit that lives in these Beef Stroganoff Sandwiches. When I can’t do the long braise, when the afternoon visit to Cedarhurst has taken the hours and the evening is short, this is the recipe that carries the same weight: beef, warmth, something substantial enough to mean something. You make it, you serve it, and for a moment the kitchen has answered the week the way only the kitchen can.

Beef Stroganoff Sandwiches

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb beef sirloin or ribeye, thinly sliced against the grain
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 8 oz cremini or button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 4 hoagie rolls or sturdy sandwich rolls, split and lightly toasted
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Season and sear the beef. Pat beef slices dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear beef in a single layer for 1—2 minutes per side until browned. Work in batches to avoid crowding. Remove to a plate and set aside.
2. Saute the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium and add butter to the same skillet. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5—6 minutes until softened and golden. Add mushrooms and cook another 4—5 minutes until they release their liquid and begin to brown. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Build the sauce. Sprinkle flour over the mushroom mixture and stir to coat. Slowly pour in beef broth while stirring, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard. Simmer for 3—4 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.
4. Finish with sour cream. Reduce heat to low. Stir in sour cream until smooth and fully incorporated — do not boil once the sour cream is added or the sauce may break. Return the seared beef and any accumulated juices to the pan. Stir gently to coat and heat through, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5. Assemble the sandwiches. Spoon the beef and mushroom stroganoff generously onto the bottom halves of the toasted rolls. Garnish with chopped parsley if desired. Cap with the top halves and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 520 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 680mg