Stroganoff

I am absolutely in love with this Stroganoff recipe. We must have had this at least 10 times in the last month. We have had it so many times actually, I am sure we are half Russian by now.

This one uses pork fillet instead of the traditional beef, but you are welcome to use beef, it stays the same and tastes fantastic either way.

This will take you as long as it takes the rice to cook.    20-30 min. And it is a lot healthier than the original version.  The plain yogurt just gives it that hint of sour deliciousness.

This recipe will easily serve 4 people.

Ingredients:

500g pork fillet – cut into thin strips

2 punnets brown mushrooms – sliced roughly

2 heaped tablespoons paprika

½ teaspoon dried garlic

Lots of butter

5 heaped tablespoons of plain yogurt

250ml cream

Salt and pepper to taste

A good glug of brandy

Method:

1. Sprinkle all the paprika on your pork strips and rub it in well
2. Fry the mushrooms and the garlic in the butter until they are well fried and reduced by about 70% – set aside
3. In the same pan, without adding oil/butter, fry your pork strips that you have covered in the paprika, until done
4. Add your mushrooms back, and fry until it is all the same temperature again, and add your salt and pepper
5. Add your brandy and set it alight! (I love this part). Let it burn out by itself
6. Add your yogurt and cream, stir well, and let it simmer until the sauce is as thick as you want it

Voila! Done.

Flambéed Mixed Mushroom Pasta

This pasta dish started with the gift of a bottle of brandy. We aren’t really drinkers, so I started wondering what other uses I can have for the brandy. After reading up about the original recipe of Stroganoff, I decided that I would play around with it a bit and come up with a healthier, vegetarian version.

The first time I flambéed the mushrooms, I almost lost my fringe! But the taste that came out was worth the fright! I also made it on my birthday for lunch when my parents, brother and sister came over. While I was making the dish I could hear everybody laughing and talking behind me (we are a loud family), once I added the brandy and set it alight, all was suddenly very quiet behind me. After a couple of seconds my mom joked:

“Ok Jouré, we won’t be naughty any more…”

So here is it. The dish for those that behave themselves 😉

Ingredients:

Smoked salt – the clumpy ones

½ teaspoon whole coriander

½ teaspoon whole mustard seeds

1 clove fresh garlic – crushed

Butter

Pepper

4 heaped tablespoons of plain yogurt

125ml cream

50-75 ml of Brandy

1 punnet of small brown mushrooms – roughly chopped

1 punnet of mixed wild/exotic mushrooms (Enoki, Oyster, Porcini, etc) – roughly chopped

Method:

1. Dry fry your mustard seeds, coriander and salt for about 1 minute on high heat. Take out of the pan and put it aside
2. Fry your mushrooms and garlic on high heat in the butter. You will see how much they need. Mushrooms usually need quite a bit to make them extra creamy
3. Add you fried spices and pepper
4. Add the brandy and light it up! It will burn for as long as there is alcohol in it. Let it burn out by itself
5. Add the yogurt and cream and let it simmer – it will thicken by itself. It isn’t a very thick sauce but that is what makes it so great. It will cover your pasta and there will be sauce left that you can scoop up with some delicious home made bread