Stroganoff Style Steak and Rice

Today was one of those days that I wondered where I'd be without the invention of the internet. I've been trying to run down the things in the fridge and freezer and so had an odd range of ingredients to make lunch with.

A quick internet search found Jamie Oliver's Beef Stroganoff and Rice and although I didn't have any mushrooms or fresh herbs or spinach or brandy, I did have gherkins and so I decided to see what we could come up with. So here's our own version which is completely different to, but inspired by, Jamie's recipe (with guesstimated amounts as I'm rubbish at weighing or measuring ingredients when I'm just throwing things together to see how they turn out).

Ingredients:
1 pack thin steak (contained 4 small steaks - the type that cooks in a minute or two in a frying pan)
Rice (enough for 4 adults so around 300g)
A cup of frozen peas
A handful of baby gherkins
1 red onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
Rapeseed oil for frying
1 tsp dried parsley
A few tablespoons of yogurt
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
A couple of tablespoons of white wine (we used Black Tower of course! If you need a reminder why, see here)
Optional squeeze of lemon to serve

Although I didn't have any fresh herbs, I did have some frozen Italian herb mix (It is from Waitrose and contains red onion, basil, parsley, garlic, thyme and oregano), there was about a teaspoon or two left in the pack so I added that in too.

I actually have an affection for this Italian Herb mix as I used it in a recipe that won me a trip to Noma last year.

Method:
1. To keep things really simple and quick, I cooked the rice in the microwave in my usual way. I just wash the rice in a bowl, then cover it with boiling water. The level of water needs to be a couple of centimetres above the rice. Then add a tiny dash of rapeseed oil, and pop in the microwave on full power for 20 minutes. It doesn't need to be microwave rice. Just normal rice is fine.
2. Whilst the rice is cooking, chop the red onion and gherkin into pieces. Put some of these pieces to one side to garnish at the end. Blitz the remainder in a chopper into finely chopped pieces. Then fry in a little rapeseed oil on the hob along with some finely chopped garlic. Use a large frying pan.
3. Throw in the frozen peas, the dried parsley, the white wine and the frozen italian herb until cooked through.
4. In a separate frying pan or griddle pan, cook the steaks. They will literally need only a minute or so on each side. Then use scissors to cut into strips and add to the frying pan containing the onion etc.
5. Stir in some yougurt.
6. Once the rice is cooked, tip it into the large frying pan containing the other ingredients and gently mix.
7. Serve onto a serving plate and garnish with the reserved chopped red onion and gherkin pieces.

For the first time ever, I am being brave enough to link up with Recipe of the Week. My cooking usually turns out pants so I've never been able to link up before but this dish surprisingly turned out ok.