The steaks are high

I'm always very tempted by beef stroganoff. It has a lot of easy-eating, comforting, warming appeal and seems suitable whatever the season. Imagine my annoyance, then, when attempt after attempt to make it produced mediocre results!

I've followed numerous recipes - this one from the Waitrose website was just strange and bland. Delia's recipe wasn't bad but still didn't give a satisfyingly meaty and flavoursome outcome. The sauce always seemed to be too creamy and flat, and the meat overcooked.

Now, meat being overcooked is the worst possible thing for me, so I decided to take action! I bought some lovely-looking fillet steak for my next attempt. But it looked so plump and so delicious I just couldn't bring myself to cut it into strips! And thus a delicious dinner was born!

I made the stroganoff almost as usual - I gently fried some sliced red onions in a great big frying pan, then added a little bit of brandy and turned up the heat to help it reduce. Then I added some slices of mushroom and stirred in a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a shake of black pepper and a crumbled beef stock cube (this addition of stock really helps). Lastly I mixed in a small tub of creme fraiche and left it all to simmer for a little while.

Rather than adding steak to the mixture I cooked the medallions of fillet steak just on their own, for about six minutes (but most people probably need it to be cooked for a little longer than that). I gave them a tiny crust of black pepper before putting them into the griddle pan, too. This means I get perfectly cooked, seared-on-the-outside steak, rather than leathery, cold strips!

I always use wild rice with stroganoff, so I cooked this in the meantime and, rather than placing it onto a plate and adding the other stuff on top, I mixed it into the frying pan with everything else for a couple of minutes. This means nothing gets cold and gets rid of any excess water from the rice. So,serving this all becomes very simple: great big dollops of rice and stroganoff mixture onto a plate with a medallion of steak plonked on top!

And, of course, a massive glass of red wine by the side ...