Gordon Ramsay pork stroganoff is thin slices of tenderloin seared hard, then folded into a brandy and soured cream sauce with mushrooms. It serves four and takes about 25 minutes.
The recipe is from Cooking for Friends, where he calls it a lovely unfussy dish for supper and suggests buttered pasta or steamed rice alongside.
The paprika goes on the meat, not in the sauce. A teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika is rubbed into the sliced pork with the salt and pepper, so it toasts in the pan.
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Gordon Ramsay Pork Tenderloin Stroganoff
Course: DinnersCuisine: RussianDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes15
minutes390
kcal25 min
From Cooking for Friends. Pork tenderloin sliced thin and seared in under two minutes, then finished with brandy, soured cream and mushrooms, with smoked paprika seasoning the meat rather than the sauce.
Ingredients
450g pork tenderloin (1 lb)
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika, plus a pinch to finish
4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced (7 oz)
A splash of brandy
125ml soured cream or double cream (½ cup)
A squeeze of lemon juice
A handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Directions
- Slice and season: Trim any fat or sinew from the tenderloin, then slice it thinly. Season with salt, pepper and the teaspoon of smoked paprika, tossing so every slice is coated.
- Soften the onion: Heat half the olive oil in a wide frying pan until hot. Fry the onion over a medium heat, stirring often, for 6 to 8 minutes until soft and translucent.
- Add the mushrooms: Stir in the garlic and mushrooms and raise the heat slightly. Fry for 3 to 4 minutes until the mushrooms are tender, then tip everything onto a plate and set aside.
- Sear the pork: Add the remaining oil to the empty pan over a high heat. Fry the pork until golden brown, 1½ to 2 minutes.
- Build the sauce: Return the onion, garlic and mushrooms to the pan. Add a splash of brandy and let it boil, or flambé it, until almost completely reduced.
- Finish: Stir in the cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Season with salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Throw in the parsley and take the pan off the heat.
- Serve: Serve straight away with a pinch of paprika over the top, alongside buttered pasta or steamed rice.
Notes
- The pan gets emptied before the pork goes in, which matters more than it sounds. Ninety seconds is all the tenderloin needs, and it will not sear properly in a pan already full of soft onions. Calories are worked out from the ingredients.
FAQs
Why season the pork with paprika instead of the sauce?
The teaspoon of smoked paprika goes onto the sliced pork with the salt and pepper, before anything is cooked. It toasts against the hot pan during the sear, which brings out the smoke.
Stirred into cream at the end it would just tint the sauce orange and taste raw. A second pinch goes over the finished dish, so you get both toasted and fresh.
Why take the vegetables out before searing the pork?
The pork needs a hot, empty pan. Onions and mushrooms release moisture, and a wet pan steams the meat grey instead of browning it in the 90 seconds it has.
Tip them onto a plate, sear the pork alone, then bring them back. Everything meets again for the brandy, so nothing is lost and nothing overcooks.
Should you flambé the brandy or just boil it?
Either works. Ramsay writes boil or flambé, and both burn off the alcohol and leave the flavour behind.
Flambéing is faster and looks better. The chicken fricassée page covers his reasoning in more detail, since it flambés brandy the same way in a similar pan sauce.
How long does pork tenderloin take?
A minute and a half to two minutes, total. Tenderloin is very lean and sliced thin, so it goes from raw to overdone in seconds.
Get the pan properly hot before the pork touches it. If your pan is small, sear in two batches rather than crowding, which drops the temperature and steams the meat.
Can you use beef instead?
Yes, and it works identically. Beef fillet sears in the same time and takes the same paprika, brandy and cream. That is exactly what the beef stroganoff on this site does.
Pork is the version Ramsay actually published. If you want the beef swap with its own quantities, that page has them.
What else does Ramsay do with pork in a pan?
Quite a lot. The pork chops page runs through five pan-seared versions across three cookbooks, including a Calvados and mustard sauce that sits close to this one.
Tenderloin is the quickest of the lot, though. Chops need eight to ten minutes and a rest, where these slices are done in two.
