Ingredients
Steaks and pepper sauce
Method
- Bring steaks to room temperature. Rub both sides with salt and as much of the listed pepper as you like; leave at least ten minutes. Dice the shallot.
- Heat oil over medium heat. Fry steaks 2½–3 minutes per side, turning once, to the desired doneness. Keep the meat still between turns.
- Deglaze with Cognac, then keep steaks warm in a 70°C / 158°F oven.
- Lower the pan heat, melt butter and stir shallot for 5–10 seconds. Add wine; reduce about 30 seconds.
- Add stock over high heat; reduce 2–2½ minutes until syrupy. Add cream to taste and reduce 1–2 minutes.
- Return steaks and their juices, coating both sides to warm. Plate with sauce.
Equipment
Good-quality frying pan; Oven and warm plate; Knife and chopping board
Notes
- Preparation: bring the steaks to room temperature, season with salt and pepper and leave for at least 10 minutes. Have the diced shallot and sauce ingredients ready before frying.
- Frying: work with two steaks at a time. Leave them still between turns and turn once. The source does not give steak weights or thickness, so judge doneness rather than relying on its 2½–3 minutes per side alone.
- Reduction: the stock should become syrupy before the cream goes in. Add cream within the stated 50–100 ml range to suit your taste, and let the sauce thicken before returning the meat and its juices.
- Accompaniments: fries, other potatoes or rice will catch the sauce.
- Pepper: use as much of the listed 2 tablespoons as you like to coat both sides of the steaks. The pepper coating seasons the sauce when the steaks return to the pan; there is no separate pepper addition to the sauce.
How to
Photos
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About this dish
Steak au poivre is a French restaurant classic in which pepper and the meat’s own pan juices carry the flavour. Cognac or brandy, shallots and a concentrated stock belong to its familiar sauce, with potatoes, often pommes frites, alongside. Versions vary in their cut of beef and their finish; the French Cooking Academy recipe takes its cue from Parisian bistro cooking.
Its particular character comes from two additions of alcohol and a carefully reduced sauce. Cognac lifts the first pan juices before the steaks are set aside in a warm oven. Shallot and white wine follow, then reduced brown beef or veal stock cooks down until syrupy. Cream rounds out that concentrated base. When the steaks return, their collected juices go back with them, joining the meat and sauce. The short list of ingredients rewards attention to the pan: good browning, a measured reduction and seasoning to taste.
Recipe and cooking notes adapted from French Cooking Academy.