Good morning
So, last night A Man and I almost went out for dinner, but then decided to stay in instead and just use the money we would have spent at a restaurant to cook something incredible. Rib eye steak was on offer at the supermarket, but still more expensive by weight than a rib of beef joint. We went mad. We bought a single rib joint and A Man took his cleaver to it when we got home. 2 enormous steaks and a couple more in the freezer. Excellent!
I forgot to take any photos of A Man butchering the joint, but I’m sure you can guess what it looked like.
As far as I’m concerned, the key to cooking great steak is to ensure that it’s properly seasoned, and to make sure it’s nice and dry before you cook it. If the meat has a ton of moisture on the surface, the steak will essentially steam, which is just what you don’t want. The method below worked fantastically, and I’d recommend it.
Much love
Gemma xx
Great steak with baked chips, mushroom sauce and peas
2 steaks
Olive oil
3 large cloves garlic
Dried thyme
About 100g butter
1 white onion
1 large punnet mushrooms
A couple of tablespoons of rum or brandy
100g crème fraîche (I used Yeo Valley Organic half fat)
A small amount of stock, preferably home made
Potatoes
Frozen peas
- Crush and chop the garlic finely. In a large bowl, mix around half of the garlic with a good glug of olive oil, about 1 tablespoon of thyme and some salt and pepper. Dry the steak if necessary with a clean tea towel or kitchen roll, and marinate in the oil mix. Turn the steak over and rub it around to ensure that the whole steak has had the oil treatment.
The steaks sit and wait, poised to jump into the frying pan, and into my eagerly awaiting mouth.
- Heat about 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan with the butter, until the butter starts to bubble. Finely slice the onion and add this with the remaining garlic to the pan. Stir regularly and cook until the onion is soft.
- Slice the mushrooms and add these to the onions. Continually turn them over, so that they are evenly cooked. Cook the mushrooms until they are soft and have started to reduce.
- While the mushrooms are cooking, prepare your potatoes. You can peel them if you like, but I prefer not to. Cut them into chips of fairly even size, and then rinse the chips in cold water. This will remove some of the starch from the surface and help to make a crispy chip. Mix in a bowl with a touch more olive oil, and some salt, pepper and any herbs or spices you wish to add to your chips. My favourite is smoked paprika.
- Turn the oven on very high, and place a baking tray in to heat up.
- Add the rum or brandy to the mushrooms and stir vigorously. It should sizzle a lot. Stir through the crème fraîche and stock and allow to bubble for a couple of minutes. Season the sauce to taste, and add a little water if it is too thick. Remove from the heat – you can warm it through again just before serving.
- Cook the chips on the preheated tray. Depending on their size, and how crowded they are on the tray, they should take around 30 – 45 minutes. Warm the plates if possible.
- A few minutes before serving, heat a dry griddle on the hob until it starts to smoke. Put the peas on to boil (they really only need the water to boil, then they can be switched off). Add the steaks to the griddle and watch them carefully. Cook to your liking. We usually have ours rare, but these came out slightly more on the medium side because I cooked them a little too long, but they were so tender it just didn’t matter. Warm the mushrooms through at this point.
Everything on the go. I have to say, it was somewhat extravagant having steaks that only just fit in the griddle…
- Once the steak is cooked, immediately plate up everything Pour any juices from the steak pan back over the meat. Revel in just how incredible your dinner is going to be.
Incredible steaks, delicious mushrooms, perfect crispy chips and, well, peas. What an amazing Saturday night dinner! Over the top, yes, but still better value for money than going to a restaurant or getting a takeaway.
In short I adore it!
