Beef Stroganoff: Learn to Love the Tail

The last of the freezer-emptiers. I’ve had a delicious-looking piece of beef fillet – the tail end – staring at me from my freezer for the last few months. Its time has come.

Beef Fillet

Many people think of beef fillet as a piece of meat that’s too expensive for them and is only for special occasions. And with regular beef fillet, that’s probably the case - for most of us, at least.

However, the tail end (the thinnest end of a whole beef fillet) is a little different. It’s just as tender as the main fillet, but it’s too small to cut into decent steaks, which is what most people like from beef fillet. It’s therefore a bit of a pain for butchers; they can split up the whole fillet and sell it for steaks at a profit, but they’re left with the tail end. The net result is that you can often get it cheaply.

Now, there’s no reason why you can’t just cut up your tail end of fillet into tiny little mini-steaks and cook them as you would a normal fillet steak. Make sure you cut across the grain of the meat – don’t be tempted to cut with the grain to get a bigger steak, as it’ll make the meat seem tougher in your mouth. As a way of getting fillet steak for cheap, the tail isn’t at all bad.

Beef stroganoff

If the idea of teeny-tiny fillet steaks freaks you out (or you want more than one mini-steak in your tummy), beef stroganoff is a fantastic way to go. Rather like a stew or curry, it involves small pieces of beef in a creamy, paprika-flavoured sauce. Because the tender fillet needs so little cooking, it’s a really quick supper as well as being delicious.

Beef stroganoff originated in 19^th-century Russia, but has been much adapted as it became globally popular. It generally includes beef fillet, onions, paprika and sour cream. You can also include mustard (which I did), tomato purée (just add a tablespoonful with the paprika) and mushrooms (I left them out because I hate them, but you can just slice them and sweat with the onions if you like).

This is honestly a lovely dish: not the most photogenic, but yummy enough to make up for it. It’s classically served with crispy straws or matchsticks of potato, but I think it’s great with braised or steamed rice. 

This picture would be much improved if I hadn't run out of parsley...

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

For the Stroganoff:

Tail end of beef fillet

Butter

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp paprika

1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard

A splash of vegetable oil

A small splash of white wine

2 tbsp sour cream or crѐme fraîche

Juice of ½ lemon

A little chopped parsley

Salt and pepper

For the braised rice:

½ onion, finely chopped

Some butter

2-3 handfuls of rice per person

Enough chicken stock to cover the rice

A bouquet garni (shop-bought is fine, or tie some parsley, thyme and a bay leaf together with string)

Method

First, get the braised rice going. Just sweat half a finely chopped onion in butter, then add the rice and stir to coat it with butter. Pour over enough chicken stock to cover fully, add a bouquet garni, cover with a lid and simmer in the oven at 180°c for 15-20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked and almost all the stock has evaporated. If the stock evaporates too fast, top up with a little water.

While the rice cooks, cut the beef fillet into rounds about 1cm thick. Then slice each round into three or four strips. In searing hot oil, cook the pieces of beef a handful at a time until the outside browns. Bear in mind that because the beef is so tender and so thinly sliced, it will cook – or, indeed, overcook – very quickly. Don’t give it more than two minutes or so, and maybe even less.

Remove the meat, and in the same pan, sweat the onion in plenty of butter until it’s completely soft. Then add the paprika and mustard and cook for another minute or so. Return the beef to the pan and deglaze with the wine. Then stir in the sour cream (it works brilliantly with crѐme fraîche too). Taste and season with the salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Stir a little butter through the rice with a fork and serve with the stroganoff, garnished with a generous sprinkling of chopped parsley. A delicious and convenient supper in 25 minutes!