Slow Beef Stroganoff

Traditionally, a stroganoff is a quick dish to make, however as most recipes advocate the use of fillet steak it is also quite expensive. Whilst this cut does have a lot of flavour, you can still get excellent results from a cheaper stewing steak, with just a little more patience.

Ingredients:
500g diced stewing beef
250g mushrooms
Vegetable oil (for frying)
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch chilli powder (depending on tastes)
1 glass of red wine
500ml beef/chicken stock
125ml sour cream
Big splash of Henderson's Relish (or Lea and Perrins if you aren't lucky enough to live in Sheffield!)
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and boil the kettle for stock.

The first thing to think about is achieving a tender meat, so firstly place the cubes of beef evenly across a plastic board. Cover with cling film, and using a rolling pin attack the meat with stress reliving whack after thwack, then dust the severely tenderised pieces in plain flour ready for browning.


Use a heavy set casserole dish to brown the meat, making sure you do this in batches as you want a good colour on the beef. The pan should be hot enough so that a good sizzle emanates from the beef but also not so hot that it burns. Remove the meat to a bowl, then on to the mushrooms. Chop them in half so that they are about a similar size to the pieces of meat.  Make sure the pan is still hot, so that the mushrooms brown without releasing their juices. The mushrooms will start to pick up some of the singed beefy bits off the bottom of the pan, and turn golden on their edges - at this point remove them and set aside with the meat.

Next, in the same pan, but on a slightly lower heat, fry the onion and garlic with a little oil and the tomato puree until softened, adding the spices around 5 minutes in.

When the onions are softened, add in all the the meat and mushies, stir and add a glass of red wine. Give the bottom of the pan a gentle scrape to release any meat relics left behind from the previous steps. Add enough stock to cover the meat and bring to the boil, then when everything is up to temperature put the whole lot in the oven for around 1 hour and 20 minutes (although you could leave even longer if you wish).

The meat will now be nice and tender. To finish, remove the meat and mushrooms from the pan and bring the sauce to the boil. As this begins to thicken, slowly add a paste of flour and hot water to the sauce and stir continually until the flour is integrated. Add the sour cream and reduce the heat then taste for seasoning, adding a splash of Henderson's Relish as well as salt and pepper.

Bring everything together and heat to a simmer. Serve with boiled rice and fresh chopped parsley.

This dish would also work well cooked the day before and reheated on the hob.

Enjoy,

Jim