Stroganoff revisited

Stroganoff revisited


Recently I blogged about Beef Stroganoff À La Tété, and the unfortunate waitress who in her infinite wisdom decided to challenge a Sous Chef over the quality of the dish he was sending out and what followed after. Just as I was finishing up the Blog I remembered about an incident that I was involved in with 'Beef Stroganoff' Perhaps not as funny as À La Tété but it had a happy ending for me and one of the hotel barmen.

There was nothing special going on that night, just a normal busy night with over a hundred customers in for dinner. Service was fairly fast and we had served about 70-80 customers and a check came on for a Beef Strogonaff special that was on the Table D´HÔte menu.

I mentioned in the previous blog that all Chefs have their own recipe for Stroganoff and I am no exception. You will find many variations on how to cook the dish and what to serve it with. This was mine at the time.

Fillet of beef cut in to strips
2 or 3 medium sized shallots finely chopped.
4 or 5 button mushrooms finely sliced
A good measure of Brandy (1 third for the pan, 2 thirds for the Chef Keith Floyd style)
Double cream,
Paprika,
Dijon mustard,
Saffron flavoured rice (If you do not have saffron use a little turmeric).
Chopped parsley,
seasoning,
olive oil,

Method:

Roll the strips of beef in paprika and season with a little salt and milled black pepper.

Heat a little olive oil up in a sauté pan till hot, add the strips of beef and quickly brown, remove from pan and put to one side to keep warm.

Deglacé the pan with what brandy you have not drunk before hand. Burn of the brandy and reduce down,

Add the finely chopped shallots and mushrooms and sauté until lightly colored.
Add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and then add a goodly amount of double cream or whipping cream,

Reduce the sauce down by half and add the strips of beef and finish the sauce of with more paprika and seasoning,

Having done a 'Blue Peter Special' and cooked your saffron rice before hand, fill a small mould with the rice and compact the rice in your mould and turn out on to a plate, serve the strips of beef around the rice and sprinkle with chopped parsley and a final dusting of paprika and serve.


Back to the service and the main course for the stroganoff was called away. I plated up the order, checked the plates for drips and finished them off with the appropriate garnishes and sent them to the restaurant. The service was drawing to a close and the chefs were busy clearing down the kitchen when a waitress appeared at the hot plate with a pint of lager on a silver platter. Then to my surprise she called me over to the hot plate and said it was for me. She told me it was from the customer who ordered the Stroganoff special. The customer said "It was the best he had ever tasted but could you put a little less chili in the dish next time as it was very hot"

I thanked the waitress and asked to pass on my thanks to the customer for the drink. I was chuffed mint balls As I walked back to the sauce section with my pint of lager I started to clean down my section when It dawned on me why the sauce was so hot I had used chili powder instead of paprika. Some one had put chili powder in the container marked 'paprika'.

Later on that night when we were having a few beers to wind down we got talking to one of the bar staff and he recalled a customer coming into the hotel bar after dinner was over. He said the customer had a raging thirst and was shipping down pints to put out the fire and he had given him a healthy tip for keeping him well supplied with refreshments. Having put two teaspoons of chili powder in his Stroganoff I was not surprised.




It reminded me of the silly games we used to play in the kitchen when the Chef was not about and we would see who could swallow the most teaspoons of Tabasco sauce and.....Ooops It is getting late I will have to go and put our animals to bed.

Until next time

Cheers

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