Three Minute Dinner! Turkey Stroganoff

Ready? Go!

Skillet on ... goose fat in.

Peel and chop onion ... in.

Slice turkey breast ... in.

Vegetables ... in.

One minute left ...

Pour boiling water over rice noodles ... 60 seconds.

Back to the skillet ... stir soured cream in ... add herbs ... done!

Quicker than a fucking microwave!

Real food, not nuked ...

Swordfish Stroganoff

Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed meat and soured cream, or smetana.

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.

I have some swordfish ... so thought, "why not?".

Ingredients

Your set of ingredients might differ wildly, but do take the opportunity to try this with swordfish - it's really good!

Swordfish, bacon, mushroom, onion, garlic, paprika, black pepper, celery salt, dill and parsley. Double Cream. Rice noodles and courgette.

Mise en Place

Mise en Place is a French culinary term "put in place", or prepare; all the chopping cutting and little piles of food ready to drop into pans as you go.

I'm going with swordfish, bacon, mushrooms, onion and garlic as the main part of the dish, so simply chop chop up into strips. Set aside.

For the noodles, I'm using rice noodles which need nothing more than three minutes sitting in boiled water, but I am going to bulk them out with courgette ribbons. Peel a few ribbons from a courgette and cut down to thin long strips. Place this lot into a pan, ready for boiling water.

Cream. I don't have any soured cream, but double cream will do fine. How much? Some! Pour in at the end, sufficient to make a sauce, but not too much to drown the dish.

For flavours, black pepper, paprika and celery salt is all nice, as is some chopped fresh herbs: dill and parsley for me.

Cook

Take a large heavy-based skillet and get the bacon softening, rending out some of the fat.

Toss the chopped onion in and just soften.

Drop in the mushrooms to soak up all the fats.

Now, in with the swordfish and sauté until coloured through.

Chopped dill, parsley, paprika, black pepper and celery salt, reserving some chopped parsley for garnish.

In with some double cream and lower the heat so as to reduce the cream while it melds with all those flavours.

Prepare your noodles. Boiling water over, three minutes - perfect for the cream to have reduced.

Serve

Noodles and courgette down, Stroganoff over and garnish with fresh herbs.

I popped a tomato on top, too, just because ...

Impression

Novel. Very enjoyable. Definitely a "do again" and something I'd encourage all to try.

Chicken & Mushroom Stroganoff with Aromatic Roasted Carrots

Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed meat and soured cream, or smetana.

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.

Flaked Salmon Pickled Turnip Salad

Continuing with the Baltic theme, after our Borscht, we had a simple salad of good Baltic ingredients.

First, boil some turnip, topped, tailed and cut into wedges. Don't cut them too small.

In the last couple of minutes, chuck in a few large spring onion heads.

Once soft, remove from the water and place into a bowl with a good handful of chopped dill and a generous helping of white wine vinegar.

Leave to cool ...

Immerse a fillet of salmon per person in the water and gently poach.

Build your salad ...

Begin with some greens. I went with spinach leaves.

Layer over some pickled gherkin slices. Spoon over the turnips and spring onions. Flake over the warm poached salmon, garnishing with more chopped dill and some freshly milled black pepper. Crown with a good dollop of smetana, a Russian soured cream.

What a fantastic trail of good, gut probiotic encouraging food!

Borscht

Classic Russian/Ukrainian beetroot soup.

Borscht is a big part of the culinary heritage of much of Central Europe and as such, so many combinations and versions exist - Borscht can also be eaten hot, or cold.

All manner of ingredients can be included, herbs, roots; cold, cucumber, radish; some stir in soured cream for a vivid pink, others, a dollop on top.

This one is quite pure and makes the most of the beetroot. Chilled, it would be superb, hot, still gorgeous!

Begin by peeling, cubing and boiling a beetroot per person and get it boiling away to soften.

Soften a chopped onion in butter or olive oil along with a couple of cloves of garlic.

Peel a couple of large plum tomatoes. You know how to do this, right? Cut an X into the end and immerse in boiling water for a few minutes - the skin will then just fall off.

Once the beetroot is softened, put the lot into a blender and purée to a pulp.

Back in the pan, let it out with a little water or stock - the soup should still be more a slurry than liquid.

Taste? It's bitter! Sugar is often added. If you really must, honey would work. Personally, I like the bitterness, but it does need the edge taking off. The solution is vinegar, which lends just a little sweetness in the back taste - cider or wine vinegar. I went with red wine vinegar.

Ready to eat? Final flavours - maybe some sea salt, some black pepper.

Into a bowl with some fresh herbs - dill or chives are perfect. I went with chives, since dill was going to feature heavily in my main course.

Crown with a good dollop of smetana, a Russian soured cream which has a more creamy flavour than the soured cream we are used to here in the UK. If dairy is not within your dietary template, just leave it out.

Taking this basic formula, the addition of cucumber and radish would give a cool peppiness chilled, adding in roots, turnip, swede, even potato, would produce a heavier, warming winter soup.

Have fun with combinations ...

Golubtsy ... Wrapped in Spring Greens

Golubtsy, a Russian peasant dish which is so good it deserves to be eaten by Royalty!

Simply put, it's minced pork in cabbage leaves. I like to keep the pork part as simple as possible and so I tend to just spice the pork with cayenne pepper and paprika - more paprika than cayenne pepper. I also used some asofiteda.

No cooking ... just mix the ingredients cold.

The pork stuffing often bulked with rice, but no need here - just use a lot of spiced pork.

Rather than cabbage, I used spring greens. At their peak, these spring greens were long, vibrant and not too stalky. The trick is to snip out enough woody stalk so that you can roll up the leaves easily, but leave enough to give it some strength.

Wilt the leaves in hot water and wrap around the spiced pork, packing the parcels neatly into an ovenproof dish topped up with chicken stock.

Cook for a couple of hours at 180C (so, erm ... 350F? 375F?) ... ish ... it's not like the exact temperature really matters.


Meanwhile, make up a sauce.

I like finely chopped onions, garlic and a can of peeled plum tomato with some chilli and a lot of parsley.

Cook this down so it is not wet. I also blended the sauce so that it was really smooth.

Last, grated some carrot and cucumber, and shred some spring onion. Mix with some chopped dill.


Hungry? Serve up!

Spread out the tomato sauce onto a plate and place the Golubtsi one by one onto the plate. Surround with the grated carrot and cucumber.


Cover with a good glob of Smetana!

This is a soured cream, fattier and creamier than regular soured cream, so perhaps just mix in a good tablespoon of double cream into a regular soured cream if you can't find the genuine article.

Turkey & Mushroom Stroganoff

Another Stroganoff ...

Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed meat and soured cream, or smetana.

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.

I have a few mushrooms in need of using up, a good turkey breast, and we're going to serve it over paleo pasta!

Stroganoff is a quick dish for which preparation is the key ...

Slice an onion and get it softening in a little butter.

Slice up some mushrooms and get them softening in butter.

Slice up some turkey breast and set aside until you are ready to serve.

Peel some carrot into ribbons and shred some spring greens, both absolutely seasonal, and spring greens quite firm in texture this late into the season. Set aside until ready to serve.

Chop some parsley and set aside until ready to serve.

Stroganoff comes together quickly and is best served fresh ...

Once the mushrooms have softened, pour over some cream or soured cream, stir in the softened onions and add a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Turn the heat right down and allow the cream to warm through, take on a little colour and reduce ever so slightly.

Now for the overture ...

Boil the spring greens and just before all the water has evaporated off, drop in the carrots. Switch the heat off - we don't want to overcook these while we're preparing the remainder of the dish.

Toss the turkey slices in a fresh frying pan or skillet with some coconut oil or dripping - turkey is very lean meat and works very well indeed with neutral flavoured fats like coconut oil and dripping. Use the heat to seal quickly and then toss in the creamy mushrooms, adding in some freshly milled black pepper and the chopped parsley.

Drain the vegetable ribbons and assemble a mount on a plate.

Spoon the Stroganoff over the paleo pasta.

Chicken & Mushroom Stroganoff

Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed meat and soured cream, or smetana.

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.

I have a glut of mushrooms and some chicken to use up, and we're going to serve it over paleo pasta!

Stroganoff is a quick dish for which preparation is the key ...

Slice up some mushrooms and get them softening in a little butter.

Slice up some chicken breast and set aside until you are ready to serve.

Peel some carrot and courgette ribbons, both absolutely seasonal, and set aside until ready to serve.

Chop some parsley and set aside until ready to serve.

Stroganoff comes together quickly and is best served fresh ...

Once the mushrooms have softened, pour over some cream or soured cream. Turn the heat right down and allow the cream to warm through, take on a little colour and reduce ever so slightly.

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.

Toss the chicken slices in a fresh frying pan or skillet with no additional fat - use the heat to seal quickly and then toss into the creamy mushrooms, adding in some freshly milled black pepper and the chopped parsley.

Drain the vegetable ribbons and assemble a mound on a plate.

Spoon the Stroganoff over the paleo pasta.

Golubtsy

I have made this before, but the first time I wrote up this recipe was the first time I'd made it and I was more than a little hesitant about whether it had turned out right, whether it was good, whether it was worthy ...

Golubsti with Garlic Baked Turnip

I've made it a few times since and I'm pretty confident now, freestyling as I go ...

Golubtsy is a Russian peasant dish which is so good it deserves to be eaten by Royalty!

Simply put, it's minced pork in cabbage leaves. I like to keep the pork part as simple as possible and so I tend to just spice the pork with cayenne pepper and paprika - more paprika than cayenne pepper.

Tonight, I put in some shredded leek (leek and pork is sooooo good) and a little sauerkraut with carrot from my local Polish deli. Put into context, 2lbs of meat makes 6.

No cooking ... just mix the ingredients cold.

Put a few large cabbage leaves into boiling water to soften. You don't want to cook them! I immerse in boiling water and turn them over after a couple of minutes.

Snip out the stalk in a long triangle.

Place a portion of meat mixture on the the leaf and fold one side of the cut-out and then the other over ... push the meat in and roll over.

You will now have a cabbage triangle ... hopefully, a few of them.

I used Savoy Cabbage - the outer leaves are largest and the inner leaves smaller. I made two very large, two large and two medium. Stuff with diminishing portions of meat.

Top up with chicken stock. I had some bone broth left over, so that was really easy ...

Cook for a couple of hours at 180C (so, erm ... 350F? 375F?) ... ish ... it's not like the exact temperature really matters.

Meanwhile, make up a sauce.

I like finely chopped onions, garlic and a can of peeled plum tomato with some chilli and a lot of parsley.

Cook this down so it is not wet.

Hungry? Serve up!

Spread out the tomato sauce onto a plate and place the Golubtsi one by one onto the plate in diminishing size order as the size of the leaves dicatated.

Cover with a good glob of Smetana!

This is a soured cream. The keen-eyed among you will notice that this is a Polish Smetana, so apologies to any Russians reading, but it's all I could get hold of.

Smetana is a fattier soured cream than regular soured cream, so perhaps just mix in a good tablespoon of double cream into a regular soured cream if you can't get it.

Indulge in a bottle (or two) of sensible indulgence - Baltika #7 from Saint Petersburg.

Na zdorovje!

Turkey Stroganoff

Stroganoff is a Russian dish of sautéed meat and soured cream, or smetana.

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.

I'm going to use turkey ...

Stroganoff is a quick dish for which preparation is the key.

Slice up some turkey breast into small strips. I also shredded some streaky bacon for a salty, fatty flavour.

Prepare any vegetables that will accompany the meat - I used yellow pepper, asparagus tips and ribbons of courgette for fettuccine.

Using a frying pan or sauté pan, warm the bacon through and remove the bacon leaving the fat. Set the bacon aside. Sauté the the vegetables in the fat and set aside.

Colour through and cook the turkey strips, adding in the bacon, the vegetables and combine well.

Remove from the heat and drop in a good helping of cream - crème fraiche, soured cream, smetana or even double cream will do just fine. Grind in some freshly milled black pepper and sea salt, if required.

Once warmed through and combined into the meat and vegetables, serve out.

Golubtsi with Garlic Baked Turnip

Голубцы - Golubtsi, or meat stuffed cabbage rolls, is a dish whose variations can be found across Turkish, Balkan, Eastern European and Russian cuisine.

Golubtsi combines minced meat, rice or buckwheat, herbs, onion, shredded root vegetables, an egg to bind and wrapped in a cabbage leaf. The dish is often served over a thick tomato sauce, sometimes with mashed potatoes and always with a good glob of soured cream, or smetana.

Time to get stuffed ...

Place a whole cabbage in a large pan and cover with hot water, setting to heat to a rolling boil - this will assist the removal of whole leaves easily, without tearing. Keep an eye on this - we're looking for slightly softened leaves, not cooked cabbage!

In a mixing bowl place a couple of pounds of minced meat - I used pork. Crack in an egg, a finely chopped onion, some herbs and some shredded root vegetables - I used sage and thyme for herbs, and some shredded daikon which delivers a tingling bite like horseradish. I also added an amount of crumbled Caerphilly cheese ... just because. Leave out the rice.

Mix well to ensure that the meat starts to break down a little and that all the ingredients are well distributed. You're looking for the consistency you'd make for burgers.

Relieve the cabbage of several large outer leaves - I found that ten was just right for the amount of stuffing that I had made, making good sized Golubtsi.

Allow the leaves to cook - they will soften more as they cool and will be much easier to handle. Cut the firmest section of stem out in a vee shape retaining as much of the leaf as you can.

Divide the stuffing into the number of leaves you have and place an amount onto the leaf. Fold the two sides of the vee down over the stuffing and tuck back, good and tight by rolling it over and bringing the top part of the leaf underneath.

You should have a number of neat triangular parcels to place into an oven-proof dish and just cover with water or bouillon or stock.

Rather than serve with mashed potato, a baked turnip is a great paleo alternative.

Core the turnip and set onto a piece of baking foil. Stuff a little butter down the core, place a clove of garlic and stuff a little more butter on the top. Wrap the foil around the whole turnip.

Place the Golubtsi and the turnip into a pre-heated oven set to 200C for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, make up a thick tomato sauce to accompany.

Soften some onion in some fat - bacon grease or lard is perfect. Pour on some peeled plum tomatoes and pulp down. Raise the heat to reduce the liquid, lowering to keep just warm while the Golubtsi cook. Prior to serving, toss in a good handful of chopped parsley.

Serve out onto a plate - tomato sauce as a base, placing three or four Golubtsi on top. Drop a generous glob of soured cream on top, maybe some dill or more parsley and the turnip on the side.

Eat, enjoy and be fulfilled.

Kepti Baklazanai with Beef Bolognese

Жареные баклажаны с говядиной Болоньез - Kepti Baklazanai with Beef Bolognese is a Russian dish of fried aubergine covered with a beef bolognese sauce, topped with cheese and herbs; not dissimliar to the Italian Parmigiana di Melanzane with which you might be more familiar.

Time to get nuclear with some Russian fusion ...

Slice some aubergine, lengthways or across the plant depending upon the shape you want. Feel free to salt the slices to remove the bitterness, patting off the liquid that is drawn out - many modern varieties do not require this.

Put the slices into a hot grill pan or frying pan. Aubergine will soak up oil, so I prefer to dry fry initially and then pat with a little extra virgin olive oil and continue the frying to add colour. Once fried, set aside.

Make up a beef sauce with minced beef fried and the excess fat removed. Soften a chopped onion, some minced garlic, add in a can of plum tomatoes and a good handful of parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for a couple of hours to cook through.

In a hot over (say, 180C), cook the aubergines through for 5 minutes and place onto a plate - two to three per person is sufficient.

Spoon the beef sauce over and sprinkle some grated cheese over the top - cheddar is fine, or feta.

Finally, garnish with more parsley.

For an Italian style, use oregano in the beef sauce and parmesan cheese for the topping. Garnish with basil.