From Babcio’s cookbook

Beef Stroganoff

Name: Beef Stroganoff
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: 500 g Lean Sirloin Steak; 300 g Mushrooms; 1 large Onion; 40 g Butter; 200 ml Sour Cream; 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard; 2 tsp Paprika; 200 ml Beef Stock; 1 tsp Salt

35 min · Medium · Serves 4

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What you need

Written for 4. Change that in the app and the amounts follow.

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How it goes

Slice the steak into finger-width strips against the grain. Slice the onion and quarter the mushrooms.
Babcio’s tip
Against the grain, always. Cut the long fibres short and even a tough piece turns tender.
Get half the butter very hot in a wide pan. Sear the beef in two batches, one minute a side, and lift each batch onto a plate.
Babcio’s tip
Two batches, not one. Crowd the pan and the meat boils in its own juice: grey, not brown.
Add the rest of the butter and the onion. Cook 4 minutes until soft, then the mushrooms for 5 more until they have given up their water and started to colour.
Babcio’s tip
Wait through the wet stage. Mushrooms taste of nothing until the water has gone.
Stir in the paprika, then the beef broth. Scrape the pan and let it bubble down by half.
Turn the heat right down. Stir in the sour cream and mustard: it must not boil now.
Babcio’s tip
Boil sour cream and it splits into curds and sadness. Low and slow from here.
Return the beef and its juices, warm through for 2 minutes, and taste for salt.
Babcio’s tip
The beef only needs warming. It cooked already.

What she’d tell you

This came west with Russian cooks and every country changed it a little. Mine has plenty of mushrooms and a spoon of mustard, and I make no apology for either.