Classic Beef Stroganoff

I am very lucky to have the opportunity to play around with all of Eat.Art's spices and salts at home. Always inspiring, and sometimes pushing me out of my comfort zone, this is one of the recipes I have developed for them - inspired by their Hawaiian Red Alaea Salt - it was the perfect accompaniment to the beef stroganoff craving I had recently developed. The salt is described as "A dramatic mix of sea salt and purified Hawaiian volcanic charcoal, creating an aesthetic marvel with a striking appearance and smoky undertones" it was the natural partner for all the smoky bacon I added to this dish.

From the start - this is not a quick dish. Yes, it takes less than 10 minutes to put everything in the pot, but then another three hours for it to cook. Is it worth it? Yes. But, if you have a slow cooker, this is the time to whip it out of the cupboard.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil, for frying
500 g stewing beef, in small chunks
1 onion, halved, thinly sliced
300g mushrooms, in small chunks
250g bacon, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tsp sweet paprika
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup beef stock
¼ cup sour cream
Eat. Art Hawaiian Red Alaea salt and pepper, to taste

Method:
Place a pot on a high heat, add the oil and the beef and fry until the meat is well-browned on all sides. Add the bacon, mushrooms, onion and garlic and fry until starting to colour. Add the paprika, tomato pasted and flour and stir until well combined. Top with the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce and reduce heat to low. Allow to gently simmer until the meat is very tender – this could be anything from 1 – 3 hours, depending on how tough your meat was. Add the sour cream just before serving.

This recipe was developed for Eat.Art. All images taken with a Canon EOS 600D from Loot.co.za