This fiery take on the humble stroganoff recipe if courtesy of James Martin. In the original recipe, he serves with sautéed potatoes, but you can choose whatever you like – mash, rice or even german noodles (spätzle), which is what I used here.

Ingredients

• 75g unsalted butter
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 150g mushrooms, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 110ml beef stock
• 500g beef filet, cut into strips
• Salt and pepper
• 150ml brandy
• 200ml sour cream
• 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. Heat frying pan, and add half the butter. Once melted, add the onion and fry until softened.
2. Add the mushrooms, and cook for a couple of mintues.
3. Add the tomato purée, mustard, and paprika, and cook for a minute.
4. Pour in the beef stock, bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 – 4 minutes.
5. Season the beef with salt and pepper, and fry in the remaining butter in another frying pan until browned all over (2-3 minutes on both sides).
6. Add the brandy, and carefully light, allowing the beef to flambé until the fire dies out – (CAUTION: make sure there are no flammable materials above the pan when flaming).
7. Add sour cream to the mushroom and onion mix.
8. Add the beef to the sour cream mixture, and cook for one minute. Season to taste, then add the parsley.
9. Serve two spoonfuls per person with the accompaniment of your choice!

Story time…

I love a good beef stroganoff. It’s one of those wintery dishes that has all the charm of a tummy-warming stew, but minimal prep time. I wrote about my go-to stroganoff recipe last year, so you may be thinking why one could possibly need a second option. I wasn’t aware of any other way of making the delectable dish until I was introduced to this absolute fire cracker of a recipe.

Somewhere along her ongoing path of culinary discovery, my future sister-in-law, Shona, stumbled upon this James Martin creation. A tomato-based sauce, it’s a refreshing take on the standard recipe. Not that I don’t love the original! But this is just so delicious, I couldn’t resist sharing.

The best part about this is the flambé step – where you literally douse the beef in brandy and set the whole lot on fire! Sounds a bit tricky, but I assure you – if I can do it, you definitely can! Just be careful – remove kids/animals from the area and then let your inner pyromaniac run wild!

In terms of serving suggestions – James does this with sautéed potatoes, which I have had in the past and very much enjoyed. However, this time round we went for spätzle, a traditional German egg noodle. I always have them with chicken stew whenever I visit my paternal grandparents – it’s a long-running family favourite – and so my Oma sent a few packets out to myself and Shona. They went perfectly with this stroganoff, but you could also go for noodles, pasta, mashed potatoes or rice. Whatever you fancy really!