Meatball Stroganoff without W’shire Sauce!

Since the Red Australian Meatball Incident, I’ve been looking for a meatball stroganoff recipe that better fit what I expect when I hear the word “stroganoff”–lots of sour cream flavor and no weird colors. I finally found one that fit the bill–one I will make again.

The secret ingredient in the balls is grated Parmesan cheese, but (as usual) I substituted Grana Padano.

The “2 teaspoons Italian herbs” was annoying–you kids today throwing your money away on uncustomizable mixes–so I went on a random rampage of thyme, oregano, marjoram, and parsley that was probably more than two teaspoons, but why stop to measure? The breadcrumbs were handcrafted (food-blogger smirk) from leftover barley-malt burger buns.

They make a fairly firm ball…and no Worcestershire sauce. I was a little nervous.

My favorite method: Scharf anbraten fürs Röstaromen, er, sear for the yummy Maillard crust, then let them finish cooking in the sauce so you don’t have to worry about the outsides being burned while the insides are raw (not that that ever happens to me, you understand…).

The sauce is a basic blend of onion, garlic, and mushrooms–these are the basic brown Bavarian mushrooms that I use in everything, and just look at how pretty they are all sliced up! (I forgot to take a picture of my Mise en place. Too excited!)–sautéed together, then deglazed with beef broth.

Add sour cream, still admiring those mushrooms. The sauce was exactly what I wanted, and plenty of umami without Worcestershire sauce.

I chose to serve these with Brezn to dip in the sauce, because earlier in the day I accidentally bought too many. I do not recommend this: they were too salty and didn’t balance well with the sauce. The leftovers were served with buttered egg noodles–normal amount of salt in the cooking water. Do that when you make these.

Leftover Brezn chopped up for a Knödel might work