Coming up for air

After a term's learning telescoped into two weeks, your editor needed some post-exam relaxation, and some decent self-made food. However, with much of the brain still swamped by locative particles and the infamous copula (no, not a kind of tower-top, and not the other, just a version of the verb to be), I needed a tried and tested dish. Beef stroganoff may be for some a bit passé, but it can be really good if you have the right ingredients in the right ratios in the right pan. And this evening we did. Having turned it over in my mind, I really think most stroganoff failures (or less significant successes) come from having too much beef: this evening's attempt really sang out because there was enough onion (a mix of the semi-dissolved and the semi-still-crunchy) and mushroom to outflank the meat (at least as much as the beef by weight), and more crème fraîche than seems likely (about 180ml for a kilo of other goodies), and keeping it really simple. The onion, mushroom and beef (in that order) only had about 15g of goat's butter as cooking fat, and the accompaniment was plain pasta. Ever so good.

Term 2 starts in 46 hours' time.