Beef Stroganoff with Buttered Rice

Ingredients

• 500 g beef strips (striploin or rump), sliced thin
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 200 ml hot beef stock
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 200 g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 150 ml soured cream
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 300 g long-grain rice, rinsed
• 40 g butter
• 10 g fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• 1 lemon, zest and juice

Method

1. Start the rice: tip the rinsed grains into a pan with 450ml water and a generous pinch of salt; rice cooked in unsalted water tastes flat all the way through. Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 12–14 minutes until tender and the water has gone. Off the heat, fork through the butter so each grain turns glossy, then leave covered to steam while you build the sauce.
2. Pat the beef strips dry. Dust lightly with the flour and season generously with salt and pepper before they hit the pan. Get a wide stainless or cast iron frying pan properly hot with the oil; you want it just shimmering.
3. Sear the beef in two batches, 1–2 minutes a side, until deeply browned but still blushing inside. Don't crowd the pan; all at once and the strips steam in their own juices instead of taking colour. Move each batch to a plate to rest.
4. Drop the heat to medium and add a knob of butter to the same pan, leaving the brown stuck bits exactly where they are. Soften the onion and mushrooms for 6–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the mushrooms have taken on real colour and the onion is sweet and sticky at the edges.
5. Let the garlic sizzle briefly, then move on as soon as its raw smell fades.
6. Stir in the Dijon and Worcestershire. Pour in the hot stock, scraping up the fond from the base of the pan. Simmer for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon.
7. Pull the pan off the heat, return the beef and any resting juices, and fold in the soured cream; off the heat so it stays glossy and doesn't split. Taste. It likes plenty of black pepper.
8. Spoon the buttered rice onto warmed plates and heap the stroganoff alongside. Scatter over the extra parsley, set a lemon wedge on each plate, and squeeze a little lemon juice over the sauce just before eating; the acid lifts the cream and the mustard and ties the whole plate together.