Russian hardcore cuisine: Jellied beef with pickled mushrooms

If you’re a meat lover, you don’t have to restrict yourself to the steak house. Russian cuisine offers a variety of meat dishes. One of them is zalivnoe, a traditional dish made of beef jellied in broth.

Zalivnoe has for centuries been a treat for special occasions. It takes time and patience to cook, but those who make the effort are honored by the very rich and authentic taste.

Maxim Tarusin, chef at Moscow's Voronezh restaurant and meat club, cooks his own brand of zalivnoe, combining beaf with pickled saffron milk cap mushrooms and apple horseradish dressing, topped with unagi sauce. This fresh and bold constellation will surely work for sophisticated tastes!

So let's get down to business.

For Voronezh-style zalivnoe you need:

600 g beef (flank steak) 700 g unagi sauce 1500 ml beef broth with gelatin 400 g pickled saffron milk caps 8 g garlic 20 g parsley Salt, pepper to taste

That will make 10 portions 230 g each

For broth with gelatin:

1500 ml beef broth, pre-made (from 300 g beef) 15 g garlic 8 g ginger 4 g sweet peas 12 g salt 50 g sheet gelatin

For apple horseradish:

1 part horseradish 2 parts apples vinegar, salt, sugar to taste

Stir all ingredients thoroughly.

How to make it:

Fry the meat on both sides until medium.

Make strong beef broth, add spreaded gelatine, stir.

Mix pickled mushrooms with garlic and parsley.

Cut the meat along the grain into thin pieces, add salt, pepper, unagi sauce, and mix. Put the meat into the dish (you can cover the bottom with a plastic food wrap for extra convenience), cover with broth. Then put it into the fridge and wait for 40 minutes to an hour, until it jellifies. Then put the mushrooms on top, cover with the remaining broth and freeze again for the same period of time.

Serve with apple horseradish.