I love taking simple dishes and putting my own signature on the dish.  When I grew up Beef Stroganoff looked and tasted a lot different than it does today—and my mom was a really great cook.  Somehow I have bad memories of cream of mushroom soup (and I don’t think it was from my mom)…anyway, no more cream of mushroom soup required—this pasta dish is fresh, light and full of flavor!

I make my stroganoff with thinly sliced grilled flat iron steak, roasted shiitake mushrooms scented with thyme, caramelized red onions, fried capers, and linguine tossed in a Madeira creme fraiche sauce.

As with any dish, it helps if you start out with a really good foundation and in this case, a dark, rich veal stock. To start, I grill my flat iron steak to a medium rare to get a nice smoky flavor.  Let the steak cool completely and then slice as thin as possible.  Meanwhile, thinly slice shiitake mushrooms and toss in canola oil, minced thyme, salt and pepper. You can either pan saute the mushrooms or roast in the oven until caramelized and crispy.  Next, julienne red onions and saute over medium-high heat until caramelized.  Toss some capers into a saute pan with olive oil and cook over medium heat until crispy.  However, keep the pan partially covered because once they start to fry they’ll pop and jump out of the pan.  Drain the capers on paper towels and salt lightly and set aside.

To finish, start cooking the linguine in plenty of salted water.  In a saute pan with a small amout of canola oil, over medium heat, add the steak, onions, and minced garlic and deglaze with Madeira.  Reduce the Madeira and then add the veal stock and reduce to a sauce consistency.  Add the mushrooms, a small amount of creme fraiche (you can use sour cream instead, but it should be added at the very end because sour cream will break under heat).  Toss in the pasta and finish with parsley, fried capers, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  Enjoy!