How to Make Beef Stroganoff
Serves 6
Beef Stroganoff was first cooked up in Saint Petersburg, Russia by Charles Briére a chef
employed by the wealthy and powerful Stroganoff family. Briére entered the recipe for
his beef dish named after his employer in a competition, ‘L’Art Culinaire’ in 1891 and
won first prize. Legend has it that his boss Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganoff had
lost all his teeth and his chef had designed this recipe to help the Count enjoy his beef
even without his pearly whites. This is my variation on the theme, brings back fond
memories for me as it was the first dish I made for Shelly before we were married, it
seemed to do the trick and yes she still has her teeth. Once again feel free to
experiment a bit, I have made this with red peppers to compliment the onions and give
it more colour and even spiced it up with some sweet chilies in the past.
Ingredients:
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1kg beef fillet, trimmed and cut into thin strips
• 2 brown onions chopped
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 400g of sliced button mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of HP sauce (A1 Steak Sauce)
• 3 teaspoons corn flour or more if required to thicken
• 1 cup of stock
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup of single cream
• 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 table spoon of Dijon mustard
• Half a cup of red wine
•Ground salt and pepper to season
1. In a large frying pan, spray with olive oil, pan fry the steak until bubbling in
their own juices
2. Drain meat juice off and discard, add stock and simmer for 20 minutes, do not
allow the meat the boil dry, top up as required
3. In a separate pan cook the onions until soft (not brown) add the mushrooms
and continue to cook until warmed through
4. Add the onion and mushroom mix to the steak and simmer on a low heat
5. Add the Worcestershire sauce , garlic, HP sauce, mustard and tomato paste, stir
in ensuring the mix doesn’t catch/burn on the bottom of the pan
6. Let the mix cook on a low heat, stirring every few minutes, gradually add the
wine at each stir
7. The longer you leave it to cook the more tender the meat will become (can be made in
advance and reheated provided you haven’t added the cream)
8. 10 minutes before serving gradually add the cream and season to taste
9. If your stroganoff is too watery mix the corn flour with a little cold water so it looks like
milk. I find a small glass and your fingers are the easiest way and you get rid of all the
lumps.
10. Gradually add the corn flour to the stroganoff stirring in slowly, you will see and feel
the mixture thicken, stop when you are happy
Accompaniments & Garnish
• Spiral a little single cream and sprinkle flaked parsley
• Serve with a few seasonal vegetables or on a bed of rice or pasta
• A nice glass of medium bodied red wine will make it perfect
Beef Stroganoff, in its simplest form, is simply tender beef with a mushroom, onion and sour cream sauce served over rice or noodles.
The current accepted history of this dish dates back to the 1890s when a chef working for Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, the famous Russian general, invented the recipe for a cooking competition in St. Petersburg, although it should be noted that recipes of meats braised in a sour cream base are fairly typical of medieval Russian cookery. After the fall of Imperial Russia, the recipe was popularly served in the hotels and restaurants of China before the start of the Second World War. Russian and Chinese immigrants, as well as U.S. servicemen stationed in pre-communist China, brought several variants of the dish to the United States, which may account for its popularity during the 1950s. It is commonly served with noodles or rice.
It is also very popular in Brazil (where it is better known as “strogonoff” or “estrogonofe”), but the recipe is slightly different there, with tomato sauce added to the cream. One unusual variation, latterly only found around the Norfolk Broads, uses whitebait instead of beef, which locals call ‘t’whytebayte estrog’noffe’.
This is apparent also in many international variations of the dish, where tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, thickening and other ingredients has been added depending on where it’s served.
Modern Russian-style Beef Stroganoff is usually served over noodles or buckwheat groats (kasha). However, the original dish as it was created for the count in the 1890s, was served alongside crispy twice-fried potatoes, and thus this version is the most traditional. The sour cream sauce also contains more sour cream, giving the dish a more white to gray color, instead of the common American or Chinese brown.
It is very popular as a basic food service dish as it is very easy to produce it in large quantities.
