James Martin beef stroganoff with sautéed potatoes

Nothing is so easy, elegant and delicious as a beef stroganoff. This James Martin beef stroganoff recipe uses the best fillet to make a recipe that’s the height of luxury

By James Martin
James Martin recipes

Ingredients

For the beef stroganoff

• 75g/3oz butter
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 150g/5oz white mushrooms, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1½ tsp Dijon mustard
• ½ tsp smoked hot paprika
• 110ml/4fl oz beef stock
• 500g/1lb 2oz beef fillet, cut into strips
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 150ml/5fl oz brandy
• 200ml/7fl oz soured cream
• 2 tbsp flatleaf parsley

For the sautéed potatoes

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
• ½ onion, finely chopped

Method

1. Heat a frying pan until hot, then add half the butter. When foaming, add the onion and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until just softened.
2. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the tomato purée, mustard and paprika and cook for a further minute.
4. Add the beef stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
5. Season the beef with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
6. Heat a separate frying pan and add the remaining butter. When foaming, add the beef and fry for 2-3 minutes on both sides, until browned all over.
7. Add the brandy and carefully allow to flambé in the pan. (CAUTION: make sure there are no flammable materials above the pan when flaming.)
8. Add the soured cream to the onion and mushroom mixture and mix well.
9. When the flames have subsided, add the beef to the soured cream and mushroom mixture and cook for one minute. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper and add the parsley.
10. For the sautéed potatoes, heat the oil in a frying pan until hot, then add the potatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until tender and golden-brown all over. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper and add the onions. Stir gently to combine.
11. To serve, place two spoonfuls of the sautéed potatoes onto each plate and spoon equal portions of the beef stroganoff alongside.

James Martin Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff (also spelled Stroganov) is a Russian dish of sautéed pieces of beef served in a sauce with sour cream. From its origins in mid-19th-century Russia, it has become popular around the world, with considerable variation from the original recipe.

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.

Another recipe from 1909 adds onions and tomato sauce, and serves it with crisp potato straws, which are considered the traditional side dish for Beef Stroganoff in Russia.

The version given in the 1938 Larousse Gastronomique includes beef strips, and onions, with either mustard or tomato paste as optional.

Russian and Chinese immigrants, as well as US servicemen stationed in pre-Communist China, brought several variants of the dish to the United States, which may account for its popularity during the 1950s.

It came to Hong Kong in the late 1950’s, with Russian restaurants and hotels serving the dish with rice, but not sour cream.

In the UK and Australia it is generally served with rice and sometimes with pasta. British pubs usually serve a version of the dish with a creamy white wine sauce, whereas more “authentic” versions are often red stews with a scoop of sour cream separately served on top.

This James Martin beef stroganoff recipe uses sauteed potatoes rather than rice or pasta.