Back home in the UK for one of our regular visits, I met my brother at a quaint little Italian restaurant near Nottingham where I chose beef stroganoff from the menu. I hadn’t had this for years and it was utterly delicious. The steak was as tender as tender could be and the sauce rich and silky. The restaurant owner said it’s not very Italian but when they try to take it off the menu people ask for it so they have to bring it back!
Back in France I was keen to recreate it for Nick and myself at home. A short break in the current heatwave gave us a cooler evening when we could sit out in comfort and enjoy it. Followed by cheese (using my new cheese plates) and plum and apple crumble using fruit from our own trees.
I adapted this recipe from the Good Food website. The break in the heat was all too brief and we were soon back to bbq and salad.
I found these cheese plates in a UK charity shop and acquired a second set so eight in total. Perfect for a dinner party!
Determined to get them back to France I carried the boxes of them in my hand (under the seat in front) luggage and as predicted, they caused some confusion at the security scanner. I suspect they might have looked like land mines!
Ingredients
1 tblsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, crushed or grated
1 large knob of butter
a handful of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tblsp plain flour
300g fillet steak or good quality frying steak, sliced
2 tblsp crème fraîche
1 tsp French mustard
100ml beef stock (or dry white wine) I used ½ a beef Oxo cube dissolved in boiling water
Method
Fry the onion in the olive oil on medium heat, until softened. Add the garlic and fry briefly.
Add the butter to the pan then the mushrooms. Fry until soft (about 5 minutes). Tip everything out of the pan onto a plate or dish and set aside.
Put the flour into a dish and tip in the sliced steak, toss around to coat the steak.
Add a little more olive oil to the pan and fry the steak for 3-4 minutes until browned.
Tip the onions and mushrooms back into the frying pan and add the crème fraîche, mustard and beef stock or white wine. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes, season well and serve with chopped fresh parsley if you have any and an accompaniment of your choosing. This could be rice, mashed potatoes, chips or pasta. Anything goes.
Serves 2-3 portions.
