Sirloin in cream sauce - Czech specials

Description:
What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘typical Czech food'? The most popular dish, according to food experts, is sirloin in cream sauce, a delicious combination of tender beef, creamy sauce and, of course, the obligatory dumplings. As is usually the case with traditional recipes, there are probably as many diff erent versions as there are cooks. But this is the real one!

Ingredients:
750 g of the fi nest beef sirloin
150 g of carrots
150 g celery
75 g parsley
1 large onion
50 g bacon chopped into
small wedges
150 g butter
salt
pepper
5 peppercorns
3 allspice berries
3 bay leaves
a pinch of thyme
lemon juice
sugar
100 g of rough mustard
2 tablespoons of plain fl our
250 ml cream
milk for thinning the sauce if
needed
lemon slices
cranberry sauce

Directions:
Clean the meat of any membrane etc, interlayer with the bacon, add salt, pepper and sprinkle on the chopped onion. Add the grated vegetables, spices and a squeeze of lemon juice, then pour over the melted butter. Leave for a day in the fridge. Next day pour a little water over the meat and braise in the oven until soft. Take the meat out and remove the spices, making sure you don't leave the bay leaf in the mixture.

Put the pot containing the vegetables on the stove and bring to the boil. Add the mustard, 2 tablespoons of plain fl our then simmer. Pour in the cream and cook on a medium heat, mixing now and then. If the sauce becomes too thick, dilute with a little milk. Finally pass the sauce through a sieve. Add salt, lemon juice and sugar to taste. To enhance the taste you can add a bit of caramel to the sauce (take a tablespoon of sugar and simmer until it begins to turn brown. Add some water and boil until thick).

Slice the meat into portions, return to the sauce and heat up everything together.

Serve with a slice of lemon and a spoonful of cranberry sauce.

Sidedish:
bread or yeast dumplings