Jamie’s Beef Strog?
Though I’d never actually tried beef stroganoff before, I’d always had a mental association of it with winter and comfort foods, the creaminess of the sauce teemed with flavoursome beef and mushrooms seemed ideal for cold winter days.
So, when I bought this month’s edition of the Delicious magazine, they had a recipe from Jamie Oliver for a creamy beef stroganoff (p31) and I thought this would be a great opportunity to give this a try.
This doesn’t look anything like Jamie’s mouth-watering photo.
Ingredients
Olive oil
50g unsalted butter
500g beef fillet steak, cut into thin strips
1 small onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
300g mushrooms, thickly sliced*
125ml whiskey
3 gherkins, finely chopped
Pinch of smoked paprika
300ml light sour cream
*Jamie suggests using oyster, chestnut or chanterelle mushrooms. I just used field mushrooms as that was all I had.
Pasta or rice to serve.
1. Heat a wide, heavy-based frypan over medium-high heat, then add a splash of olive oil and half the butter.
2. Season the beef well with salt and pepper, then working in small batches, briskly fry the beef for 1-2 minutes to brown all over. Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm.
3. Melt the remaining butter in the pan, reduce the head to medium-low and cook onion and garlic gently for 5-7 minutes till soft. Add mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Add whiskey with cooking juices from the rested beef.
4. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the gherkins, paprika and sour cream, and reduce the sauce slightly over medium-high heat for 7 minutes, then stir in beef and warm for 1 minute. Season, sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve.
This tasted fine, but I hadn’t actually expected it to be sour. Clever right, especially considering that the recipe called for gherkins and sour cream. DUH. It was very indulgent and tasty, but I think I felt the kilos adhering to my thighs with every bite.
Would I make it again? Perhaps, if for a large group of people. My sister was the only other person who was interested in it, and I found that when this was reheated, there would be little pools of oil floating on top of the cream, which wasn’t particularly appetising….
Mm, winter comfort foods…
Technorati Tags: pasta, rice, beef stroganoff, pasta sauce
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Comments
Hey Lis - yeah, I’m thinking I might avoid the gherkins and whisky next time, especially the whiskey as I don’t think the alcohol cooked out (though there was some added warmth thanks to it…)
I’ve heard the same thing about his recipes, but there seem to be quite a few aussie food bloggers who swear by him, and the picture looked so darn good that I couldn’t help myself 
Ah well, it’s all a learning curve 
I think one of the better (and easier) stroganoff recipes is Rick Stein’s version (go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/beefstroganoffwithma_71568.shtml for the recipe). It is super simple and sooo very tasty.
A few tips:
. Buy the best eye fillet you can afford and make sure you cook it as per the recipe (ie. quickly!).
. Use a really good Hungarian paprika.
. Substitute full fat sour cream for a lite sour cream. Full fat is of course better, but the dish doesn’t suffer too much for the lite version.
Heya Mel - I like the sound of that Stein recipe a whole lot better than Jamie’s, I might give it a try later this week 
After I figure out what to do with the gigantic batch of brussel sprouts I bought :/
Hi!
I’m just a random browser… I know I’m a bit slow with this post, but I just had to comment, seeing as Beef Strog is one of my fave winter foods!!
My recipe varies quite a lot from yours though… it requires just two tablespoons of sour cream, but uses a tin of Cream of Mushroom soup… I’m not sure if this makes it any less fattening, but it certainly tastes delicious! I think the recipe can be found on Campbell’s cans of mushy soup!!
Hi Catherine - I’ve seen the recipes that call for tinned soup. I might just be a snob, but I try and refrain from using prepackaged foods in my cooking, only because I don’t know about the quality of the ingredients which have gone into it.
Maybe I’ve never made a traditional stroganoff? I thought I had, but never ever have I heard of adding gherkins.. my guess would be that they were adding the sour taste, yes? I’ve never added whiskey either.. not sure of the purpose? From my prospective though, it looks yummy.. nothing like a good cream sauce paired with tender, juicy steak dolloped over egg noodles to get my mojo back on a cold winter night. Might I suggest omitting the gherkins next time, though? I’ll betcha anything that will cut that sour taste dramatically. Jamie is a hottie, of that there’s no doubt, and I so love watching his cooking shows.. but I’ve heard, more often than not, that his recipes are usually not so great. I’ve never made any (I don’t think) so I can’t vouch for the trueness of that statement.. but maybe looking elsewhere for a stoganoff recipe wouldn’t be a bad idea either. All Recipes usually is a great place to find tried and true recipes from home cooks. Just an idea