Stroganoff

"It's a fine combination of French method and Russian ingredients. It also has the advantage of being quick and simple to prepare. Some versions of the dish, which has become so popular in Europe and America in the last few years, include tomato, and flour to thicken the sauce. I have even seen a suggestion that minced meat should be used. Such things are an insult."

Jane Grigson

Obviously this is what I am planning to cook for dinner tonight impelled by the need to use up some frozen fillet steak and some mushrooms. My freezer is very full and this particular piece of fillet steak is just beginning to develop freezer burn - those bits will be cut off. Not that I shall be using all of the piece of fillet that I have - just half will do. I shall have to think of something else to do with the other half. A stir fry perhaps. As for the mushrooms - they are everywhere. As I go on my walks I see them popping up all over the place, and they really look like common or garden mushrooms to me. Not that I am game to try them. The ones I am using are from the supermarket - where they are currently a good price of course. And they are just ordinary cultivated mushrooms - nothing fancy.

Jane Grigson was writing that comment in her book The Mushroom Feast in 1975 when it was indeed a popular dish in restaurants. It was what we would now call retro food - along with the chicken paprika, coq au vin and shrimp cocktail. And interestingly, back then, we seemed to eat a lot more Eastern European and Russian dishes - borscht, goulash, polish sausage ... It's a cuisine that seems to have gone out of fashion. I mean amongst the plethora of multicultural restaurants in Melbourne, how many of them are Russian or Eastern European? Obviously due for a revival. After all there are plenty of Eastern Europeans here - though probably mostly of Jewish origin. Maybe that's why there aren't restaurants. I suspect it's not a career that the Eastern Europeans and Russians go in for. St Kilda used to have a lot of Eastern European cake shops - Are they still there?

Be that as it may it is a meal that we have every now and then, mostly because it is amazingly tasty for such a simple dish, and, probably more importantly, it is also amazingly fast to create. I confess I mostly cook Delia's pork version - Pork Stroganoff with Three Mustards but I do also make Robert Carrier's more authentic version too. And today I have beef so Beef stroganoff it is.

It's named after the Stroganoff family. Again it is Jane Grigson who best encapsulates the history of the Stroganoffs.

"Originally the Stroganovs were a family of tough and enterprising Russian merchants. After the conquest of Kazan in 1552, the Tsar gave them huge grants of land in the Urals, which they colonised and exploited ruthlessly. Salt mines, iron and copper works, as well as the profits from trading and land, brought them riches and power until they became one of the great families of Imperial Russia."

This is their palace in St. Petersburg. Doubtless there were more elsewhere.

Mostly you read that beef stroganoff was invented by one of their chefs in the nineteenth century who named it in honour of his masters. I did see here and there people disputing this, but obviously, whoever invented it, the dish is certainly named in honour of this immensely wealthy family.

For that's the thing about this dish. Those claiming to be authentic always stress that the ingredients should be of very high quality - hence the fillet steak. It's expensive. Although when you think about it, maybe not. For it really doesn't use a lot of meat.

It is also traditionally served with very thin fried potato chips - frites I suppose - as shown in the retro photograph at the top of the page, taken from my Russian Cooking volume from my Time/Life Foods of the World series. I shall be serving it with rice which goes with it very well. Like Jane Grigson, the authors of the Time/Life book are very sniffy about the inauthenticity of modern versions of the dish:

"The numerous European and American variations called beef Stroganoff, do not in any way reproduce the dish as it was originally made."

So once again we are into the battle between authenticity and innovation. Obviously you can't be both, and obviously some of the innovations might leave a lot to be desired, but surely there is no crime in trying to improve on something traditional. Although I guess it's really an argument about naming - if you change it then you must change it's name.

As always I started my investigations with Felicity Cloake, who has done a How to make the perfect ... on it. From my reading of the versions that I have at home, and some from the net, it seems to me that the essentials are beef fillet, onions, mushrooms and sour cream. A frequent addition is mustard, and sometimes sugar. Anything else - tomatoes, brandy, flour, beef stock, paprika, caraway seed, ketchup Worcestershire sauce... (I've seen them all) are not traditional. Although, they might be tasty.

But then, when I looked at one of my supposedly really, really, authentic recipes from Nika Standen-Hazelton's book The Continental Flavour, she prefaces the recipe with these words:

"Though they are tasty, and sometimes even used in Russia, tomatoes and mushrooms are alien to the true nature of beef Stroganoff."

Tomatoes yes, but mushrooms? Alien? Really? Well I asked the question of Google and found on the Yahoo Answers website these two extraordinary comments from people who had supposedly answered the question. Only in America it seems to me.

"Traditionally, stroganoff was peasant food. Therefore it contained whatever was on hand. Since mushrooms grew in the wild and were free, if you could find them, you ate them." Peasant food! I thought the whole point of this was that it was a rich man's dish.

"Beef stroganoff is made with a cream of mushroom soup base, which of course has mushrooms in it. I don't like the mushrooms in it & pick the bigger ones out."

I don't think I need say any more about that one. I looked some more, but really can't find the answer to the mushroom question. I turned to Wikipedia which had this to say on the topic:

"Elena Molokhovets's classic Russian cookbook A Gift to Young Housewives gives the first known recipe for Govjadina po-strogonovski, s gorchitseju, "Beef à la Stroganov, with mustard", in its 1871 edition. The recipe involves lightly floured beef cubes (not strips) sautéed, sauced with prepared mustard and bouillon, and finished with a small amount of sour cream: no onions, no mushrooms"

So there you go. It's the mustard that is authentic, not the mushrooms.

And for a further comment on authenticity. Have a look at this blog - Chowhound, not just for the blog itself which is about a Thomas Keller version (Thomas Keller is an American 3 Michelin star chef), but also for the comments after it and the arguments about when authentic matters and when it doesn't, and how far you have to stray from the original (if it can be found) before declaring it inauthentic.

This is the Thomas Keller version - apparently incredibly complicated - "as complicated as the blueprints for a nuclear reactor" says Chowhound and really nothing like what I have always thought of as authentic.

Well I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 'authentic' - meaning, in this case, the most common version - is beef fillet cut in strips, with onions, mushrooms and sour cream. Maybe with a bit of mustard. All those other things no - not authentic, though possibly well worth doing. Here are some that I have either used or found today that sound tempting.

Delia Smith's Pork Stroganoff with Three Mustards The point of difference is the three mustards and pork. Otherwise fairly authentic. We have this fairly frequently - it's yummy.

Delia Smith's Poor Man's Stroganoff with Wild Mushrooms. Not very authentic this one. It's more of a braise than a sauté.

Julie Goodwin has a version which includes all the extra things like Worcestershire and tomato sauce but it ends up looking reasonably authentic and is probably OK.

Then of course there is Nigel Slater who has a recipe in Real Fast Food, which is interpreted on a blog called Alchemy & Salt. Nigel Slater doesn't like to slice his mushrooms. He thinks quartered ones are juicier, and he also adds paprika.

Robert Carrier's version has one small twist by adding a pinch of nutmeg and he doesn't cut his meat into strips.

1kg rump or fillet steak

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

4 tablespoons butter

250g button mushroom caps, sliced

salt, nutmeg and mace

300ml sour cream

Cut steak across the grain into slices about 1cm thick. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and flatten each slice with a wooden mallet.

Sauté onion in half the butter until it just begins to turn colour; add sliced beef and sauté for about 5 minutes, turning pieces so that all sides are browned. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add remaining butter to pan and sauté sliced mushrooms. Return beef to pan. Season to taste with salt, nutmeg and mince; add sour cream and heat through.

So I think I shall go with Jane Grigson: (apologies for not converting to metric measures)

1 1/2 lbs well-trimmed fillet steak

salt, freshly ground black pepper

4 oz butter

2 tablespoons oil

1lb onions, sliced

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

2 1/2 teaspoons mustard powder

2 teaspoons sugar

1 pint sour cream

Parsley, chopped

Cut the meat into 1/4 inch-thick slices, then cut each slice into strips about 2 1/2 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. Season and set aside while the vegetables are cooked. Melt half the butter with the oil in a large frying pan, and cook the onions gently until they begin to soften without browning. Now raise the heat and add the mushrooms. By the time they are cooked without being too soft, the juices should have evaporated almost entirely, leaving the mixture moistened but not wet to the point of swilling. Keep mixture warm ove a low heat. Mix the mustard and half the sugar to a paste itoa very little hot water, and keep it by the stove. Now quickly fry the beef strips in another pan in the remaining butter (in two batches if necessary). They should brown in a few seconds, and not be allowed to overcook. Add them to the mushroom mixture, and stir in the mustard paste, then the sour cream. Correct the seasoning and bring to just below boiling point. Turn into a dish and sprinkle with parsley.

POSTSCRIPT

I was having problems with editing this yesterday, hence the delay in publishing. The stroganoff was good - think I would leave out the sugar though. And I still can't wrap my mind around a stroganoff without mushrooms.