BEAF- STROGANOV

(You can come across the other ways of writing of the word:Beaf a-la Stroganov, Beaf Stroganov, beafstroganov). This is a popular meat dish which is considered as one of the main dishes of the system of public catering (starting from restaurants up to canteens). After the World War II to it was included in to the nomenclature of international restaurant cuisine as a Russian dish. It appeared at the end of the XIX century, in 90s. The dish was included in some cookery books, which were published at the beginning of the XX century. But it became widely known only in the Soviet period of time thanks to the Soviet system of public catering. The dish was named after the count Alexander Grigoryevich Stroganov (1795-1891), who was the last in his kin. This person became famous in the scientific world because of his rich gift. He presented the Tomsk University with the great library, which had been collected for the 200 years by the counts and barons of the kin of the Stroganovs.
A.G. Stroganov became also known because he created the project of the Odessky University (firstly known as Novorossiyskiy). A.G. Stroganov had been a governor – general of Novorossiya for a long time. He had lived and died in Odessa, where he was elected as a honorary citizen after his retiring. There was a special custom in Tsar Odessa. Stroganov (being an important grandee and o’ heir of his ancestors to have so called “free table”. It meant, that any well-educated and well-dressed person could come to dinner in to his house just from the street-Namely for these occasions this dish was invented by Stroganov`s cooks.
The dish consists of small fried meat pieces served with gravy placed in the dish as sauce (not separately). The dish gave an opportunity to observe standard. It was suitable to be divided into equal portions. And beyond it was tasty. The authors of cookery books in Odessa appreciated the dish highly. It were they who introduced it into a wide All-Russia usage. And of course , it were they who gave a name to the dish. Because the dish became known” from the second hand” much later that time when it had been invented its recipe was often distorted. As a result it leads to worsening of taste.

For cooking of beaf-stroganov you should take beef fillet steak and beat it off a little bit in pieces and then you should cut the pieces of meat into rectangles of 5-6 cm long and 1 cm thick. These rectangles should be cut then into narrow stripes 0,5-1 cm thick. The stripes of meat should be cut across fibre, otherwise beaf-stroganov can’t be bitten through. You should put onion circles on the bottom of the frying pan; you should put stripes of meat upon onion. (Meat shouldn’t be touched the bottom of the frying pan). The fire should be very strong. The frying of meat should last up to appearing of brilliance of meat: it must look like varnished one.

At the moment frying should be stopped, otherwise meat will become hard. Then beaf-stroganov should be put in a sauce-pan. Then the meat should be poured with soured cream-tomato sauce (1 glass of sour cream,1spoon of flour, 1-2 spoons of tomato paste or tomato juice) and stewed for 15-30 min(the time of frying depends on meat quality) on moderate fire. You’ll need an for preparing the dish. Beaf-Stroganov is served with fried potato and fresh tomatoes. This garnish is the tastiest. It is the best taste combination. The whole dish should be hot by all means, otherwise it’s taste and consistence will be much worse.