Beef Stroganoff

I arrived home this evening to the smell of onions and mushrooms cooking, which was very welcoming. The reason was that Kerri was making beef stroganoff. She had checked a few recipes but the end result was an amalgamation of them rather than any one in particular. The result was good although could have done with a little more paprika and a little more soured cream. The recipe went something like this, with estimated amounts for the soured cream and paprika:

Ingredients – serves 2 rather generously (as it turned out, we weren’t that generous with ourselves and I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!)
500g button mushrooms, sliced
a few dried shitake or porcini mushrooms, soaked in warm water until soft and then finely sliced
250g beef fillet
splash of brandy
4 tablespoons soured cream
half teaspoon of paprika
salt
black pepper (freshly ground)
squeeze of lemon
chopped parsley
cooked rice or pasta for serving

Method
Fry the onions in a frying pan or wok in a little olive oil until soft and golden. Remove from the pan and fry the sliced mushrooms until soft, seasoning with black pepper. These steps will probably take 20 minutes or so. Slice the fillet into thin strips and season with salt and pepper. The turn up the heat, add a little more oil to the pan and stir fry the beef strips for a couple of minutes. Add the splash of brandy and very carefully flame it, then wait until the alcohol burns off.

Add the soured cream along with the mushrooms and onions and paprika. Turn the heat down and stir, letting it all combine and heat through. Test for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed, and a squeeze of lemon. Stir in the chopped parsley.

Serve with rice (which is traditional) or pasta (which we did because I accidentally bought too much spaghetti last time I went shopping…)