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…

[tags]pasta, rice, beef stroganoff, pasta sauce[/tags]

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