Carina Contini's Beef stroganoff
Recipe: Beef stroganoff
I’m sitting in a room overlooking the Kremlin. In a moment of New Year flight sale madness after watching a repeat of Michael Portillo’s Great Train Journeys, I booked a trip to Russia. My husband Victor and I love travelling. Our babies came late in our marriage so we were lucky to be able to experience some wonderful journeys before they arrived. An early holiday highlight was in Kerala, India, to visit dear friends who have a pepper plantation in Wayanad. They grow what we think is the best pepper in the world. Our travels allow us to source wonderful ingredients and understand the growing process and provenance. In India, our friends took us to where the locals eat. It’s almost 15 years since we tasted butter chicken in Bangalore but I still remember it being the best thing ever. What is interesting in Moscow is despite having many top restaurants the food choices are unseasonal and unsustainable. There are hints of cultural identity but European and American influences are very strong. Every restaurant has strawberries and asparagus as standard. It’s minus two degrees, the nearest asparagus is probably 1,000 miles away and I can’t even think where the nearest strawberry could be coming from. In Scotland we are leading a food revolution. Our restaurants and chefs are championing seasonality, sustainability and our food heritage. VisitScotland’s Taste Our Best provides a good starting point for tourists to tap into these values. Our map at The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant even shows you where each of our ingredients is sourced. At Cannonball we’ve developed a Taste Scotland Menu. I wish I could find the equivalent in Moscow. Named after the Stroganoff Palace in St Petersburg I always thought this was made with cream and brandy and served with rice. Wrong! Here is how the locals make it.
Ingredients
- 1 knob of butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- 125g mixed wild mushrooms, cut into think strips
- 125g fillet steak, cut into matchsticks
- 1 splash of vodka
- 125g sour cream
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
Serves: 2 Difficulty: Easy
Method
1. Melt the butter and oil in a pan until hot, fry the onion, add the mushrooms and raise the heat until cooked. 2. Add the steak and flash fry for a few minutes until the meat has browned, but be careful not to overcook it. Season and then add the vodka to the hot pan – take care because this will start the flaming process. 3. Once the flames have reduced, season well and add the sour cream and mustard. Cook until the cream is hot and serve with mashed potatoes.