Po-Stroganovski (Beef Stroganoff)

By most accounts this well know dish dates back to the second half of the 19th century. It originated in the kitchens of count Alexander Grigoriyevich Stroganov, who, like many other wealthy gentleman of that era, was keeping an "open table" in Odessa, which could be joined by any educated and properly dressed member of the society. The dish became popular, due to its taste and the easiness to divide it into portions (novelty at the time) and subsequently spread to the other establishments of fine dining in the Russian Empire.

There are some disagreements over the ingredients and serving. The recipe bellow is the original Russian version, served in the restaurants of Kaunas governorate at the turn of the century (~1900). It does not contain mushrooms, and usually it was served with potato fries and brined pickles. Back in those days mushrooms were available year round (fresh in the autumn, marinaded, salted, dried for the rest of the year), but those were mostly real forest mushrooms, which generally have much more defined flavors than the common button mushroom in our shops. As for the french fries, they were known in Russia due to the popularity of the French culture among Russian nobility, kitchen included, however in some restaurants it was served with a buttery potato mash. Brined pickles work much much better with this dish than the marinaded ones (especially what usually is available at the local supermarkets), because they have less overpowering and more natural flowing flavor.

Need:
About 200 g beef filet (tender parts of sirloin).
2 average sized onions
200 ml beef stock (preferably home made, but cubes can do too, as long as it does not have too much spices, need 1 cube)
100 g sour cream
100 g butter (quality one)
1 table spoon of french mustard (paste without grains)
3 table spoons of flour
Pepper, salt

Garnish: French fries, brined pickles.

Cut beef in bite size cubes or stripes (if there is some doubt about the cut you bought, slightly tenderize it before cutting). Roll them in a spoon of flour, so the beef is lightly dusted.
Cut onion in cubes.
In a pan, melt half of the butter (50g). Add onions. Then, gently place beef on top of the onions, so that it does not touch the frying pan surface. Fry for about 3-5 minutes, until meat starts glistering (but not browning!). Its important not to overcook it, otherwise it will be hard. Take off the fire and transfer meat and onions into an oven dish.

Now the sauce. Mix about half of a glass of the cold beef stock with 2 spoons of flour, whisk it so there are no lumps. Have the rest of the stock at hand. Note: if you are making stock from cube, dissolve the cube in 100 ml boiling water and add the other 100ml cold afterwards, so the stock is not hot when you need it.

Melt butter in a clean frying pan, on a slow fire. Add the stock with flour, mixing vigorously, then thin it out with the rest of the beef stock. Add sour cream, mustard, a pinch of pepper and a pinch of salt.

Pour the sauce over the beef and onions, cover the dish with foil and put into the oven (180C) for about 15 min.

Plav

Plav is a dish typical to the Middle-Asian kitchen. There are many regional versions of it, but essentially it consists of meat, rice and carrots, all mixed through in a process of cooking. Generally any meat can do, (lamb, chicken, beef, even fish), as long as it has a bit of fat; which usually poses a problem here, as the only fatty meat you can get is pork, and that normally is not used for its traditional preparation. Traditions aside, pork does just fine, you can even add some lard to it. Rice wise the best are local Middle-Asian rice cultivars, but Basmati rice is good enough substitute for everyday cooking. There are two ways to make it, a real one and a quick one, depending on what you want to achieve (feast or everyday meal).

Need:
300 g of faty beef, lamb or pork
2 large winter carrots
2 onions
1 head of garlic
200 g of dry Basmati rice
1 table spoon of tomato puree (can be replaced by barberry berries (original), or a paste from dried sour plums)
1 table spoon of yellow raisins
2 spoons of butter, sunflower oil or lard
Spices: 1 tea spoon cumin powder, 1 tea spoon coriander powder, a pinch of black pepper, a tea spoon of salt


True version:
Generally making of plav is a bit of a ritual, a communication event with your guests while plav is slowly cooking in your kitchen or even outside on a brazier. Its a good alternative for a BBQ if you have a nice kettle to cook it in over the fire. Tomato puree is used here as a substitute for barberry berries, which are less commonly available, its there to give a bit of sourness to it. Raisins are an optional ingredient, a variation of recipe, I like it better with them though, especially if I use tomato instead of barberry as a sour additive.

So, cut the meat into bite size strips. Cut the carrots into thicker straws, cut onions in halt rings.
Clean and chop garlic. Now in the original version you cook the whole head of garlic, sort of stick it in the middle of the pot, and then squirt garlic paste out of it, but I like to improvise here and just add it normally.

To a pan in which you are going to cook your plav, add a good chunk of lard, and turn the fire to max. Add spices, add meat, fry it until it starts turning golden at the edges, then add carrots, garlic and onions. Stir fry it for a few minutes, then add about 1 liter of water - so it is a bit above the meat and vegetable mix by a few inches. Add tomato puree and raisins. Reduce fire, and cook it for about half of an hour. When it is done you have what is called zirvak - a basis for plav (which, if prepared in larger amount, can be frozen for the later use).

Then we add rice to our zirvak, simply pour it over the vegetable and meat mix, and then carefully pour about a liter of water over it - so, that it does not mess up the layering. Generally water should be more or less a few inches above the rice. Turn the fire hotter and cook it further - somewhere about 15 min or so. To check if it is done you can do two things, one is to do a few holes in the rice, so the steam from the bottom can go up (eating stick is a fine tool for that). Do that and see if there is still bubbling at the bottom, if not, plav is done. Also taste rice from top and see if it is edible, if not, add a bit of extra water. The idea is that the steam cooks the rice. When it is done-ish, mix it properly through, cover a pot and let it rest for another 15-20 min.

Traditionally the drink to accompany it is tea, it also can be served with fresh cucumber salad.

Quick version:

It is for those days when you come home from work and have no time for rituals.

Cut meat, carrots, onion and garlic as above.
Fry meat and vegetables on a frying pan, until soft and done. Mix with tomato paste with a bit of water and add to it at the end.
At the same time, make rice: boil water, add rice, cook for 8 minutes, get the water off the rice.
Mix everything and eat.