Stroganoff - a rare version.

I used to love Stroganoff growing up, I still do. We always ate in with rice, which seems to be rare for North America who favour eating it with noodles I find. I have reproduced it in many forms over the years and even managed to cure my husband of his dislike of the dish after his reserve training days where they were served some awful version of it no doubt! So, if I don't call it Stroganoff, he is pleased to eat it and thoroughly enjoys it. 

I read the Wikipedia description of Stroganoff and no wonder there are so many ideas on what it is. The addition of mushrooms and onions to it is a fairly new thing. Some countries use tomato paste in it too, this I have done and recommend it. However, I only do it if there is tomato paste in the fridge that needs using, I wouldn't go out to buy it just for this dish. I also gather that beef strips is a new version of beef chunks originally. 

I have always made it with strips of meat. If you dust them with cornflour/starch it can help to tenderise the meat if it isn't a particularly good cut. I now know that some South American countries make it out of beef tenderloin! No need to worry about tenderness there! You can cook the meat first then set it aside while you make the rest of the sauce in the same pan then add the meat back to it at the end. Then serve it with rice, in my opinion, and some kind of green vegetable to give some colour and goodness. 

This time, I had a sirloin steak out to use, and at the last minute I decided that I wasn't going to cut it up and fry it in strips, that I would just cook the steak, thinly slice it and serve it over the Stroganoff sauce instead. Hence the 'rare version' title to this entry. I made the sauce out of a finely sliced onion and a small box of crimini mushrooms thinly sliced too. I added a tbsp or 2 of garlic and some Worcestershire sauce (as always) and then the juice of half a lemon. Had I known this lemon was going to be so juicy I would have only used 1/4 of it! I had to counter balance it with half a tsp of sugar. Maybe tread with caution and add to taste at the end if you like tart flavours. I added 3 large scoops of sour cream ( still in the fridge, still needing to be used ) and stirred it in. I also added a little fresh cream (still in the fridge, still needing to be used) to thin it out. If you don't have sour cream I have used fresh cream and lemon juice and they work just fine. Let the cream reduce a little to thicken it if you do this instead of sour cream. And lastly, a tbsp of grainy mustard and some salt and pepper to taste. Once your sauce tastes good you would add the meat back in and mix it around a little then serve. In this version, the sauce was going over the top of the rice and sliced steak would join it. 

Stroganoff sauce.

My green vegetable side was brussle sprouts with horseradish. I thought the horseradish would go well with the Stroganoff. I peeled the sprouts of their outer, tattered leaves, cut the stem off and cut them in half lengthways. I then steamed them in a tiny bit of water until they were just done and drained the water. Into the pan I added a small amount of butter, enough to stop the sprouts from sticking, and tossed them around with about 1tbsp of horseradish and some pepper. You could taper the amount of horseradish according to your tastes. 

This is fairly fast dish to make. I had it ready by the time the bbq had heated up, the steak had been cooked and rested for under 10minutes. Very convenient! This would also be a nice meal without the steak for a vegetarian or just a lighter option. 

I found that we ate less steak when it was on the plate already sliced. There was enough left for a sandwich for my husband's lunch the next day. You need to butter the bread to create a barrier from the meat juices. I used brown bread, buttered, a tiny bit of mayonnaise on one side and grainy mustard on the other slice and then some salt and pepper on the meat. Very tasty so he said. With a side of pickles and a few salt chips/crisps!