Steak au Poivre - Peppered Steak

Steak au Poivre - Peppered Steak

This is a simple recipe and a Ross family favourite. It works with your favourite sort of steak, which for me is the Rib Eye. The Rib Eye is between the Sirloin and the Rump and has all the tenderness of the former, with all the flavour of the latter. The ingredients are given per steak, so multiply up the ingredients for more guests. The finer the peppercorns are crushed and the more you use, the hotter the steak. You can scrape the pepper off the steak if you over do it, so there’s no need to panic too much.

Ingredients

1 Rib Eye Steak

1 tbsp Crushed Peppercorns

4oz Butter

2 tbsp Cognac / Brandy

3 tbsp Double Cream

Method

1.     Spread the peppercorns on a plate and coat the steak on both sides, pressing the peppercorns into the steak to make them stick.

2.     Melt half the butter in the pan and fry the steak until it’s nearly how you like it cooked.

3.     Pour over the Cognac, let it warm through and then ignite it. Be careful not to lose your eyebrows.

4.     When the flames have gone, remove the contents of the pan and keep warm in a dish.

5.     Clean the pan – this is important, don’t be tempted to crash on without making sure the pan is clean. Burnt butter spoils the very delicate sauce.

6.     Add the cream to the clean pan and bring gently to the boil. Stir in the other half of the butter and when you have a beautiful shiny sauce pour it over the steak and serve. I let all the cooking juices combine with the sauce on the plate, but the classic recipe is to serve just the steak and sauce and discard the cooking juices. Try it both ways and see what you think.