Beef stroganoff

Before you start

• a wide pan — the beef needs room, or it steams instead of browning

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 220gbeef sirloin — or rump, sliced across the grain
• 250gchestnut mushrooms
• 80mlcream — soured cream is the Russian original
• 15gbutter
• 100glong-grain rice
• 1onion
• 2garlic cloves
• 2 tspsweet paprika
• 1 tspdijon mustard
• 1 small handfulparsley
• to tastesalt and pepper

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 8m

   Beef into finger-width strips ACROSS the grain, onion sliced, mushrooms halved. Cut the other way and it stays chewy however carefully the rest is done.

2. boil · 12m walk away

   Rice rinsed and on in twice its volume of salted water, lid on, lowest heat, and left alone.

3. fry · 5m

   Beef into a very hot pan in one layer, a minute a side, and straight out onto a plate. It comes back at the very end; anything more than this in the pan and it toughens.

4. fry · 12m

   Butter into the same pan and the mushrooms browned properly, then onion and garlic softened, with the paprika stirred in off the direct heat so it does not catch.

5. simmer · 6m

   A splash of the stock in to lift everything off the base, then mustard and cream. Held just under a simmer — cream boiled in a pan this hot will split, and it will not come back together.

6. fold · 2m

   Beef and every drop of its resting juice back in, off the heat, turned through the sauce for about thirty seconds until warmed.

7. finish · 2m

   Parsley and a lot of black pepper, over the rice.