Beef Stroganoff - masterchef

1moment, Oct 13, 5:28am
Just watched 3 contestants have to replicate an Australian classic(so described) , Beef Stroganoff, based on theappearance and taste of a dish shown to them.
2 used paprika and the 3rd used nutmeg. The girl that used nutmeg was eliminated as it should have been paprika.
Funny thing is my partner trots off and brings out a cookbook saying we have to cook it as it looked good. Flicked open the book , titled 'Australian Heritage Cookbook' and lo and behold it has nutmeg in it not paprika. Poor girl - I hope she doesnt have the same book at home :)
Must cook it this weekend - its been a while.
unicstudent, Oct 13, 5:35am
Hah - I have just cooked Beef Stroganoff at cooking school today and we used neither of these spices! Haven't watched the episode yet - but love MySky!! :)
1moment, Oct 13, 5:36am
Yum.Lucky you. What spice did you use ?
beaker59, Oct 13, 5:56am
There have been a few moments when I shout at the judges on these cooking shows. That would be typical they get an idea in thier head and then run with it right or wrong. Classic was an american judge who insisted that kidneys should be soaked overnight so they don't taste like kidneys a young french woman was eliminated for not doing it as she believed they should taste like what they are the look on her face was priceless as she looked at the judges like they were idiots.
stasi21, Oct 13, 7:09am
Since when is Beef Stroganoff an "Australian" Classic? lol..its a Russian Recipe. lol
1moment, Oct 13, 7:39am
Yeah thats what i thought too. I think they meant like a old fashioned Australian favourite.
unicstudent, Oct 13, 8:53am
We didn't use any spices!! And no sour cream, just regular cream and used the acidity of wine and gherkins to flavour it, with a squeeze of lemon to taste at the end (although could have used sour cream). Haha, I just realised that I didn't use gherkin (actually have never used gherkin in B S before!!) but the jar was empty when I went to get mine and then just forgot about it!! But we just had beef, onion, mushrooms, wine, stock, green peppercorns, cream and lemon :)And yes it was yum.
aktow, Oct 13, 12:38pm
when i went to cooking school we were taught that a recipe is only a guide line. .i started making strog as the recipe said but i found the strog would dry out or splitwhen it was in a bain marie for a long time..
my method for keeping a strog to stay nice for hours.
instead of fillet i used slicedrump or sirloin.

fry off sliced meat and sliced onionsand a little garlic.. add mushrooms, now i add sour cream in containers plus squeezedlemon juice . then i add paprika, when sour cream has melted add some corn flour to a thick stage... corn flour stops sauce from splitting.. then i add a little fresh cream..season

to give the strog a better taste i add sliced gherkin and sliced beetroot..once strog is madfe it will keep for hours.. if the strog get to thick i add a little milk or water...
unicstudent, Oct 13, 6:30pm
Creme fraiche tends to hold better (and not split or curdle) when cooked, than sour cream, as it has stabilisers in it:)Adding water is always best to thin it if it reduces too much, as it is simply the water that has evaporated out of it.

Yum - And I watched the programme last night - definitely an Aussie version of the original (and yes, probably similar to the 'NZ' one) - recipes always morph over time don't they :)
sleyle, Oct 13, 11:42pm
I also wondered since when did Beef Stroganoff have brandy and cream in it - it always has sour cream!Sometimes I wonder what planet those judges are on!
ruby19, Oct 14, 2:49am
I think the object oftheir challenge was to work out what was in their recipe. Theirs did have sour cream and paprika. It doesn`t matter what our recipes or take on Beef strog is, it was about recreating the dish they tasted.
I have a recipe for beef strog that has no paprika, but uses red wine, and does have sour cream.
nzl99, Apr 11, 1:08am
Ahhhh just spent a fair while googling strog ideas and recipes... seems like the more orignial recipes are quite different (like post 7) than what I would have thought of a typical strog to have been.Or maybe more correctly, what we are used to.
beaker59, Apr 11, 1:18am
It comes from a very wide base of sources so there will be many recipes but strog to me basically has only a few must haves

Beef, mushrooms, sourcream, red wine.

I remember Mum cooking it in the 70's and it was thought of as extreme cuisine .
kabbo, Apr 11, 6:54am
the beef stroganoff i make is my sisters recipe.

i just fry up beef, then onions and mushrooms and garlic, add a tbsp of french mustard to the sour cream and mix, then add that to the meat etc, stir. season with salt and pepper too. done.