Posts tagged steak

Fillet Steak, Red Bordeaux and a 60th Birthday

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What a truly fantastic and relaxing week. May is my favourite month. Not only is it is filled with selfish Birthday treats but my favourite ingredients are coming into season! The days are light and longer, a natural prescription for the post February Vitamin D deficiencies we all seem to develop if my fellow London commuters are anything to go by! So, a May holiday break back to my favourite place in the world down at Lands End. I’ve been visiting this little village haven since I was seven where I ironically celebrated my own birthday. I will never forget the patio bbq and days spent thrashing around in the surf. Was it warmer in May 16 years ago or was I just better at embracing the cold!? However I am not the 60 year old this year that this post proudly boasts. This year, it only seemed natural that we’d return here to my pa’s mutual favourite home-away-from-home to celebrate his 60th Birthday. Smooth beer, fresh fish and chips, sea air by the lungful, feisty surf and the stickiest chocolate cake….what could we all want more!? Well….fillet steak and a flashy red bordeaux would go down nicely…?

RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT:  Mellow music, sunsets dog walks on the beach, lighthearted chatter, slurping, chewing, all topped off with a competitive and crude (at times) game of scrabble. Followed by coffee and chocolate cake! Seemed to work for us anyway!?

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Serves 4

Green vegetables and some hearty homemade potato wedges are a great accompaniment here! The sweet, slow cooked juicy onions act as a delicious sauce that doesn’t detract from the flavour of the steak. Fillet steak, with very little flavoursome fat, is not the most notorious for being full of flavour hence why classic blue cheese or peppercorn sauce are often used. But I wanted a sauce here that wasn’t too powerful!

  • 4 fillet steaks
  • 2 large white onions
  • 2 red onions
  • Thyme leaves
  • 1-2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Vegetables to serve
  • Hand cut potato wedges to serve
  1. If you can, remove the steaks from their packaging/wrapping in the morning and place on a wire rack or plate to ‘dry’ a little in the fridge.
  2. Start with the onions. Heat a frying pan to medium low heat. Slice the onions in half and then slice into think half moons. Heat 1-2 tbsp of light oil in the fry pan and very gently soften the onions for about 15 minutes. Keep the heat low and make sure they don’t begin to catch. You want to end up with lovely soft, sweet onions that are just begging to brown.
  3. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Add the chopped garlic and the thyme leaves and cook for a further 5 minutes or so. Once ready, cover and set aside but keep warm.
  4. Remove the steak from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking. Season all over well with salt and pepper and drizzle over a little oil. If you like, slice a garlic clove in halve horizontally and use it to rub over the steak flesh. It just adds a subtle flavour. When ready to cook, heat a frying pan to a high heat. Fry the steaks on the below timings to your liking. As the last few seconds come around, spoon over about a 1tsp of butter per steak and baste.
  5. Its really important to rest the steak after! I cannot stress this enough especially with fillet steak! Don’t be tempted to just slap on the plate and eat. The meat needs to rest so the juices that are forced to the centre during cooking can settle out and diffuse out within the meat. This is where the flavour is! It also provides you with those all important juices for adding to your onions.
  6. Once cooked to your liking, place the steaks on a large piece of foil and wrap up tightly to rest and collect the juices. Rest for at least 10 minutes.
  7. Reheat the onions if needed and cook any vegetables you wish to serve with this
  8. After 10 minutes, open the foil and steaks. Pour and resting juices into the warm onions. Serve the steaks topped with a generous spoonful of juicy sweet onions to act as a sauce!

Cooking times:

I’m a medium rare steak lover so I always go for this timing so I’ll admit I’ve never tested the others accurately! But I presume they do the trick! All based on a 2cm thick steak. As a rough guide, add 1 minute for another cm.

Blue: 1 minute each side
Rare: 1½ minutes each side
Medium rare: 2 minutes each side
Medium: 2¼ minutes each side
Medium-well done: 2½ – 3 minutes each side.

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Steak Choice:

Everyone seems to have their favourite steak cut and there are many that are simply not popularly seen especially in supermarkets. Each cut has a purpose and is great for different occasions, recipes or side dishes and sauces.  Below is a very brief guide to help with some of the more well known and eaten cuts. First, a few things to note when choosing.

FAT: The fat content is important for two reasons. It is where the flavour is! When it cooks, the fat melts into the meat. This not only adds flavour but helps keep the steak succulent!

LOCATION: The more tender the steak, the less work the muscle has done. Therefore, a relatively unused muscles such as the loin will be more tender, and therefore usually more expensive

Sirloin: melt-in-the-mouth and succulent with some fat marbling. Lots of flavour but lacks flavour compared to a rib eye for example.

Rump (and my favourite cut): A large steak with huge flavour. It needs a long time to hang and a good cooking time as it can be tough if rare.

Fillet/Loin: Buttery tender and soft. Little or no fat so therefore very little flavour. It also cannot be hung and aged for long. My advice on a day to day basis is to opt for any other steak for economical and flavour reasons as you’ll be much more satisfied!

Rib eye: Lots of fat marbling provides a rich flavour.

Minute steak: Thin, cheap, can be cooked quickly. It can be tough however but if often seen for use in sandwiches!

T bone: The cut is part sirloin, part fillet so the cooking time is hard to judge…and then there is the cumbersome bone…

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Rump Steak, Herb Fire Sauce

 

Work has been stressful recently I’m not going to lie. So after another long and challenging day I eagerly donned my well worn trainers, embarrassing (but necessary) high vis and rucksack and took to the road and ran home. I love running home after work, its a great way to relax blow the cobwebs from my mind and cleanse my lungs….until I hit Earls Court that is and the bus fumes. Alas.

My run usually involves daydreaming about recipes and what I’m going to cook along with other things. After a long week and some serious after work power yoga sessions I’ve been eating healthy but quick to make suppers and I craved a steak and a little time spent in the kitchen. So….I made a well needed detour past the butchers and nabbed myself a lovely dark, dry piece of rump steak with an unhealthily large piece of flavoursome fat along the back and continued my run home…noticably faster.

Inspired by a chimichurri sauce this to be honest was made on the spot with leftover herbs, plenty of chilli and some lime. I have tried to remember what was added so use this as a guide. Add a touch of anything to balance the flavours and eat with joy! I packed a lot of chilli into mine…it was hot!

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Serves 2

Green Sauce

  • Large handful flat leaf parsley
  • Large handful fresh basil
  • Large handful coriander
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • ¼ red chilli (if a hot one)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • ¼ red onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 btsp lime juice
  • 3 tbsp rapeseed oil

To serve

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into wedges
  • 2 rump steaks
  • Green beans, asparagus, broccoli or choice of vegetables
  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the potato wedges on a baking tray, season generously and drizzle with oil. Roast for about 30-40 minutes until tender and crispy round the edges.
  2. Meanwhile make the sauce. Add all the ingredients except the oil, lime and vinegar to a food processor and season. Blend until chopped. Add the lime and vinegar and blend again. Add enough oil to loosen and bring the sauce together into a thick but spoonable ‘paste’. You don’t want it too runny – more like a salsa.
  3. Heat a frying pan until hot and add a dash of oil. Season the steaks with freshly cracked black pepper and salt. Sear the steak on their edge on the fat side for about 1 minute to render down the fat and allow you to fry the steak in this lovely flavoursome oil. The time will depend on how much fat you have on your steak.
  4. Once rendered and crisp, fry your steak for about 2 to 2 ½ minutes each side for a piece around 2 ½ cm thick (this will give you medium rare). Once cooked leave to rest wrapped tightly in foil for 5 minutes.
  5. When ready to serve, slice your rested steak and drizzle with any resting juices. Serve alongside the roasted potato wedges and any vegetables of your choice. Spoon over your punchy sauce and enjoy!

Drink with nothing but a cold beer of water……..I opted for beer.

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