Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients

• beef
• chicken stock
• onions
• flour
• butter
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dijon mustard
• egg noodles
• kosher salt
• freshly-ground pepper
• olive oil

Method

Cut your beef against the grain into strips roughly 5mm thick — this shortens the muscle fibres and keeps them tender even with the subsequent braising. Season generously with salt and pepper just before cooking; early seasoning draws out moisture that prevents proper browning. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed pan over high heat with a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil. The mixture prevents the butter burning whilst adding flavour. Work in batches if your pan is crowded — beef needs direct contact with the hot surface for the pan-frying that develops colour through the Maillard reaction. You're after a deep brown crust on each strip, roughly two minutes per side. Don't stir constantly; let the meat sit.

Remove the beef and set aside. Lower the heat to medium, add diced onion to the rendered fat, and cook for four to five minutes until translucent and the edges begin to colour. The onion base builds sauce-making depth. Return the beef to the pan and immediately pour in your chicken stock — about 400ml for 500g of beef. This arrests the cooking and prevents the meat toughening further. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover loosely, and leave for fifteen to twenty minutes. The beef tenderises through gentle, moist heat.

Make a beurre manié — equal parts soft butter and plain flour worked together into a paste — and whisk it into the simmering stock-based-cooking|broth in small pieces. The roux distributes evenly without lumps because you're stirring constantly into moving liquid rather than making a dry roux first. This method gives better control of thickness. Once the sauce coats the back of a spoon and shows no floury taste on your tongue (thirty seconds of cooking is usually enough), season with Worcestershire and Dijon mustard to balance the richness.

Meanwhile, boil egg noodles in heavily salted water. Taste them from the third minute onwards — they'll go from firm to tender to mushy in seconds. Drain when they still have slight resistance at the centre. Serve the noodles in a bowl with the stroganoff spooned over, or toss them together; both work. The acid from the mustard cuts the butter, the umami from the Worcestershire deepens the beef, and the starch from the noodles absorbs the sauce.