I hate waste, and we had a bunch of flat leaf parsley which looked a bit tired. So what to do?

We also had some mushrooms, and so I nipped, or popped, to the Local Shop and bought some cream. And then I remembered there was a fillet of Dexter beef in the indoors freezer.

This is one of our favourites – it’s Rick Stein‘s version, and he recommends that you serve it with thin chips. Who are we to argue? – it works remarkably well. We do tend to increase the mushrooms and decrease the meat, but that’s because we don’t like too much meat in a dish.

Recipe:

675g of beef fillet, preferably cut from the tail end
65g unsalted butter
1.5 tbsp of paprika
1 large onion, very thinly sliced
350g button mushrooms, very thinly sliced
3 tbsp sunflower oil
300ml soured cream
2tsp lemon juice
a small handful of finely chopped parsley
salt and black pepper

Cut the steak into slices 1cm thick, then cut each slice across the grain into strips.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the paprika and onion, and cook slowly until the onion is soft and sweet, but not browned. Add the mushrooms, and fry gently until they are softish. The recipe says 3 minutes, but that’s not nearly enough in my experience. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

Wipe out the pan with some kitchen paper, then heat half the oil in there till it’s very hot, add half the sliced fillet steak, season it and fry it quickly for a minute or so. Put aside to keep warm (I use the dish with the onion and mushrooms in it), and repeat with the rest of the meat.

Put everything back in the pan, add the soured cream; bring to the boil, and cook for a minute or so. Then fling in the parsley and lemon juice.

Delicious!