I haven’t always been a good cook and my food knowledge in my early twenties was virtually non-existent. Not surprising then that when a stroganoff recipe in the Pauper’s Cook Book required a tablespoon of paprika, which I didn’t have, I thought it fitting to substitute it with cayenne pepper.

The Stroganovs were a wealthy bunch and yes, the dish was devised with fillet of beef as its main ingredient; braising steak will require longer cooking time but will, in my humble opinion, give a better flavour to the dish.

Ingredients - serves 4

550g braising steak
20g dried porcini
450g chestnut mushrooms (or half and half chestnut and fresh porcini)
2 large onions
50 g butter
1 tbsp sweet paprika
250ml white wine
200ml crème fraiche
salt, pepper

Method

Cut the meat into thin strips, about 2cm x 6cm and set aside. Put the dried porcini in a cup and cover with hot water, leave to stand for half and hour then remove the mushrooms - squeezing the liquid back into the cup. Now rinse the mushrooms to remove any grit there might be in them and set aside. Keep the mushroom water.

Peel and halve the onions, from top to base, and slice thinly. Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan and sauté the onions until golden brown over a gentle heat, remove with a slotted spoon. Turn up the heat, season the beef strips with salt and pepper and fry off in the same butter until browned and sealed all over - you may like to do this in 2-3 batches. Sprinkle the sweet paprika over the beef once the beef is browned and add the onions back to the pan, throw in the soaked porcini, and pour over the mushroom water and the white wine. Bring up to the boil then lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about an hour by which time the meat will be quite tender.

Slice the chestnut mushrooms, and fresh porcini if you have been lucky enough to find some, thickly, and add to the pot - they will release liquid and increase the volume of the sauce - cook a further 20 minutes until all is tender then stir in the crème fraiche, check seasoning. Serve over wide noodles or papardelle.