Beef stroganoff

• 1 1/4 lbsirloin steak · or flank, sliced 1/4 inch thick against the grain
• 1 tspkosher salt · divided between the beef and the sauce
• 1 tbspavocado oil · or another high-smoke-point fat
• 1 lbcremini mushrooms · quartered, or halved if small
• 1 tbspunsalted butter
• 1 largeshallot · finely chopped
• 3 clovesgarlic · minced
• 1 tbspcornstarch · whisked into 2 tbsp cold water as a slurry
• 1/2 cupdry white wine · or dry sherry, or stock plus 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 1/2 cupsunsalted beef stock
• 2 tspDijon mustard
• 3/4 cupfull-fat Greek yogurt · or sour cream, at room temperature
• 1/2 tspblack pepper · coarsely ground
• 3 tbspfresh dill · chopped, plus more to finish
• 8 ozwhole-wheat egg noodles · cooked to the low end of the package time

Method

1. 1

   Slice against the grain, quarter of an inch, and dry it

   Look for the direction the muscle fibers run and cut across them, not along them. That single decision does more for tenderness in a quick-cooked beef dish than any marinade, because you are shortening the fibers with a knife instead of hoping heat will. A quarter inch is thin enough to cook in ninety seconds. Then pat the slices genuinely dry with paper towel and salt them, because wet beef steams grey instead of browning.

2. 2

   Sear in two batches, and accept that this takes an extra four minutes

   A pound and a quarter of beef in a twelve-inch skillet at once drops the pan temperature far enough that the meat releases water and boils in it. Two batches, ninety seconds a side, high heat, and pull each batch out while it is still pink in the middle, because it goes back into hot sauce later. If you only take one thing from this recipe, take this: the beef is finished in the sauce for sixty seconds at the end, not cooked through at the start.

3. 3

   Brown the mushrooms in a dry pan first

   Mushrooms are about ninety percent water and they will not brown until that water has gone. Put them in the hot pan with no fat and no salt, spread out, and leave them alone. They will squeak, release liquid, and then the liquid will cook off and they will start to colour, at which point the butter goes in. That is four or five minutes of patience and it is the entire flavour base of the dish. Salted or oiled from the start, they stew.

4. 4

   Deglaze, because the fond is the sauce

   Shallot and garlic into the mushrooms for a minute, then the wine into the hot pan, scraping the brown film off the bottom with a wooden spoon while it bubbles. That film is concentrated beef and mushroom flavour and it is the difference between this and a jar of gravy. Let the wine reduce until the pan is almost dry, maybe two minutes, then add the stock and the mustard. Reduce the whole thing by about a third.

5. 5

   Thicken with a slurry, not a roux

   A flour roux at the start means cooking flour in fat before the mushrooms get their turn, and it dulls the sauce. Whisk a tablespoon of cornstarch into two tablespoons of cold water and stream it into the simmering stock, stirring, then let it bubble for a full minute so the starch loses its raw taste and reaches full thickening power. You want a sauce that coats the back of a spoon and slides off slowly, not one you could stand a fork in.

6. 6

   Take the pan off the heat before the yogurt goes in

   This is the no-curdle rule and it is not negotiable. Yogurt and sour cream both split above roughly 180F, so kill the burner, wait thirty seconds, then temper: stir three tablespoons of the hot sauce into the yogurt in a separate bowl, then stir that mixture back into the pan. Room-temperature dairy splits less readily than fridge-cold. Full-fat is more stable than low-fat, which has less fat protecting the protein and breaks almost every time.

7. 7

   Beef back in for sixty seconds, off the heat

   Return the seared beef and any juices that collected on the plate, stir once, and let it sit in the hot sauce for about a minute. Residual heat takes it from pink to just done without contracting it. Then pepper and dill. If the sauce has cooled too much for your liking, put it back on the lowest heat for thirty seconds only, and watch it, because you are now inside the temperature range where the dairy is fragile.

8. 8

   Noodles cooked short, and dressed immediately

   Cook the egg noodles a minute under the package time, because they will keep softening in the sauce. Drain them but keep half a cup of the water: if the sauce tightens up when the noodles go in, that starchy water loosens it without thinning the flavour, which plain water does. Whole-wheat noodles bring the dish to 5g of fiber a serving and hold their bite better under sauce than white ones. Toss at the last moment.

9. 9

   Where the 520 calories sit

   Roughly half is the noodles and the beef, and both are load-bearing. The changes that keep it here rather than near 800 are sirloin instead of a fattier cut, Greek yogurt instead of a cup of sour cream, one tablespoon of butter instead of four, and no cream at all. Greek yogurt also adds about 6g of protein a serving compared to sour cream, which is why the dish clears 44g without a larger portion of beef.