This new wave of coldness and general nothingness is drawing the last drop of my enthusiasm, and the deficiency of vitamin D makes me cook only spoon related meals. I started thinking that Zagreb is surrounded with dementors, it’s constantly cold, foggy and without a trace of happiness. My patronus doesn’t come out of the magic wand it comes out of a pot, and today my sanity was protected by Stroganoff.
Stroganoff is a popular Russian meal which is made form super tender beef in a creamy sauce. There are million of variations, but they all include beef and cream. My recipe includes a bit of everything, sugar, spice and everything nice. I serve it with spaetzle, German type of dumplings, but regular Italian pasta would do.
Ingredients for 4 regular people:
- 600 g of beef round, diced
- 200 g of button mushrooms
- 1 onion
- mustard
- heavy cream or creme fraiche
- 0,3 l of beef stock
- oil/lard
- salt, pepper
- all purpose flour
- tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 2 eggs
- ground nutmeg
Preparation:
- Fry the diced beef on a little bit of oil, or even better lard. Fry until all the liquid vapors and the meet gets a nice color,which is roughly 15 minutes.
- Put the meat aside, and fry the button mushrooms on the same fat (cut the bigger ones in quarters) and then set them aside.
- Add more fat if necessary and fry the diced onion. When it softens, add two tablespoons of tomato sauce and one tablespoon of flour. Fry or a minute, non stop stirring, then add the stock. Add one tablespoon of mustard, salt and pepper, bring the meat back and let it cook for 40 minutes.
- Then add 2 – 3 tablespoons of heavy cream and the mushrooms, reduce the heat and let it cook for 10 more minutes.
- Meanwhile boil up 2 l of water with a handful of salt. Mix together flour, salt, and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
- Put a part of the mixture on a plastic cutting board and cut with small sharp strokes directly into the boiling water. Boil for 5 minutes and serve with Stroganoff and optionally grilled carrots.
Enjoy,
T 🙂
