Popular worldwide, Stroganoff has grown to incorporate many combinations of tastes, flavours and textures, from the inclusion of vegetables, mushrooms, pasta or rice, served inside crepes, as a topping to baked potato and made with almost any cut of meat, even sausage.
We're going to serve it over a paleo pasta!
For some reason, I have a glut of chicken in at the moment - good news, since this is a dish I absolutely adore! I also have some oyster mushrooms, so this could potentially take on some more exotic flavours.
Interlude
This can be a very rich dish, so, deviating from my usual base of carrot and courgette ribbons, I decided to go with just courgette ribbons and to roast the carrots.
Peel, halve from top to tail and then, depending upon the size cut each half again or into three.
Melt some fat in a roasting dish and then coat the carrots.
Sprinkle over ground coriander, ground ginger, ground chillies, perhaps cumin; whatever flavours you like, but make them warm, aromatic and inviting.
Roast at 200C (400F) for about 20 minutes. This will give to time to prep and cook the Stroganoff. Easy!
Back to main event ...
Stroganoff is a quick dish for which preparation is the key ...
Chop an onion - I like to top, tail, cut in half through the top/tail axis, lay eat half flat and shred through the top/tail axis to produce long pieces. Set aside until you are ready to cook.
Slice up some chicken breast and set aside until you are ready to cook.
Halve the largest oyster mushrooms. If you are using more regular mushrooms, slice them up. Set aside until ready to cook.
Chop some parsley and dill, mince some garlic, setting all aside until ready to cook.
Peel some courgette ribbons and set aside until ready to cook.
Stroganoff comes together quickly and is best served fresh ...
Melt some fat in a heavy based skillet and get the chicken coloured up, toss in the onions and garlic ... and the mushrooms if you are using more conventional mushrooms.
Add in the dill, some black pepper, sea salt, paprika and possibly cayenne - I fancied a hotter dish, so used cayenne.
Now for the overture ...
Drop the vegetable ribbons into boiling water and turn the heat off. We don't want to overcook these while we're preparing the remainder of the dish.
Pour in some double cream and a tablespoon of natural yoghurt. If you're fine with yoghurt, but not cream, just go with yoghurt. With the heat down, if not off, use the heat in the pan to meld the ingredients together.
Drain the vegetable ribbons and assemble a mound on a plate.
Toss the parsley into the skillet, maybe some more black pepper and sea salt to taste.
Spoon the Stroganoff over the paleo pasta.
