Bonjour and a happy Bastille Day to you all, my dear readers. 223 years ago today, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille in search of the stores of gunpowder held within, kicking off the French Revolution. Today, we celebrate with a delicious steak dinner. A few hours ago, I was looking on Wikipedia at the list of French dishes and found the steak au poivre. I started reading what it was and immediately got very hungry. The basic idea is a pan seared steak encrusted with peppercorns with a pan sauce of cognac and cream.
My recipe is based somewhat off a combination of The Joy of Cooking and my fellow bowtie enthusiast Alton Brown. The departure I took from the traditional method is that I used half and half instead of full cream to cut the richness a little. The flavors in this dish come together beautifully. The peppercorn crust cuts through the sauce just enough to assert itself. The traditional cut used is a filet mignon, but for those who aren't huge fans of that, use your favorite cut, or whatever you have on hand. I used top sirloin, and it came out very nicely.
Ingredients
- 1 steak, your favorite cut
- 1 tbs black peppercorns
- Salt
- 1 tbs butter
- Dash of olive oil
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 1/4 cup cognac
- 1/2 cup beef stock
- 1/4 cup half and half
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- A few leaves of flat leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
Cut excess fat from the steak. Salt both sides of the steak as you normally would. Using a mortar and pestle, crush up the peppercorns. They should be coarsely crushed, with much bigger pieces than would come out if you used a pepper mill. Rub both sides liberally with the peppercorns.
Heat the butter and just a little olive oil in a saute pan on high heat. To get a good sear, we want the pan nice and hot. Lay your steak in the pan and cook for 4 minutes. Turn it over and cook another 4 minutes. You should generally leave it alone during each cooking period. Remove from pan and set aside to rest. Cooking the steak in this way will give you a beautiful pink-red interior. Do not overcook the steak, okay?
Add the onions to the pan and saute briefly, a minute or less. Deglaze the pan with cognac and reduce by about half. Add beef stock and half and half, bring to a boil, and reduce again by at least half, until desired thickness is reached. While you are doing this, add the mustard and mix it in.
Remove the sauce from heat. Add the parsley and mix in. You can salt the sauce to taste, but I didn't find it necessary. Spoon the sauce over the steak and enjoy! I had some simply roasted red potatoes on the side and a glass of 2010 North Point Petite Sirah. And for those wondering, it was arguably no 1904 Clos de Bèze, but it was quite delightful.
Only fools overcook the steak. Excited to try this out, I love me a nice slab o' beef. Also, you may be interested to know that we bastardized your bangers and mash recipe (the gravy, at least) for a quick yet delicious dinner tonight. For the gravy, we added some mustard instead of the Worcestershire sauce and served on top of sauerkraut over bratwurst. It was a nice little variation.
ReplyDeleteOnion gravy is pretty versatile. It's great on Yorkshire pudding too.
DeleteI think mustard would be a good addition, not unlike it was in today's recipe. You also can't go wrong with mustard and brats.
The steak au poivre is indeed a classic. I am using the article like those using a Romance language would. It is Bastille Day after all. The steak au poivre is one of my favorites since childhood. It often popped up on prix-fixe menus when I was a high school kid in Hong Kong. The steak would often be served on a cast iron dish in the shape of a cow placed upon a wooden base with a depression carved into the wood so the cast iron plate would drop right in. I guess they do that with fajita these days. There are two versions of this steak, one with black peppercorns and another one with green peppercorns. Green peppercorns in brine are available in a tiny can at most grocery stores. They come from France. There are also dried green peppercorns. The green variety is less spicey than the black. I am happy to hear that you have found a use for the Cognac I brought you. I can't remember if I brought you a Cognac or just a simple French brandy. For this purpose, it is not an issue at all. I am with you on the cut of meat. I think this dish is infinitely better with a sirloin or a strip, rather than a tenderloin. I think the sauce goes well with a tastier cut and the firmer texture is also preferred in this case. By the way, I have several vintages of Clos de Bèze but no 1904 (of course). I think Evelyn Waugh's description of the 1904 Clos de Bèze is the most wonderful description of a bottle of wine in English literature. I read the paragraph to my wine course students whenever I do the wine and literature course and also for the course on the wines of Burgundy. It goes way beyond describing a wine as it is also social commentary of what is more important in life, money or those things higher in purpose and wisdom. I also know a thing or two about how a mature wine, albeit frailty, may still be capable of whispering faintly, but in the same lapidiary phrase, the same words of hope.
ReplyDeleteIt is Cognac Salignac that I have. By the way, in that particular scene, which I read this afternoon, Waugh also has some interesting things to say about Cognac and connoisseurship thereof.
DeleteHi, I am glad you celebrated Bastille Day in a proper manner. We had a lovely dinner with George and Ginny Connell and Randy and Mary Jo Lewis. We were between courses when I received your text so pulled up your blog and read it to them. We had snails, of course, and lamb followed by a great cheese course. I made macaroons for dessert along with dad's fruit tart. I tried a coffee flavor and a chocolate one. The coffee macaroon is really the best so far and will have to make some for you when you are home. An interesting side note that came up, not sure who said it, but there is a new history of the French Revolution written by a history professor who is also a foodie. His take is the revolution started because the people were angry about the quality and quantity of bread. The king was unable to do anything about it so we have the French Revolution! Somewhere in there must be the phrase "Let them eat cake" which would be ok by me.
DeleteTo Rex, Paillard's is this "funny little restaurant" his art student friend took him to. It is not the usual grander places in Paris he would know and visit. Rex was being a show-off when it came to Cognac. He missed the point that a Cognac doesn't have to be old and dusty to be enjoyable. The top and expensive end of the spectrum isn't the only way to enjoy everything, like the choice of restaurant. As you well know, Rex represented the crass commercial world and new money that he has yet to acquire. Although Charles is not of wealth, old or new, but he is an intellectual. Rex wanted the old dusty Cognac, in a large balloon snifter and warmed up. That may be the ways some like it (more likely in the English speaking world) but the French tend to view Cognac as an "eau de vie" or a digestive, more likely drunk younger, in a smaller glass, at room temperature and enjoyed with less fanfare. I too have gotten to serve Cognac that way, especially the younger and lighter ones, like the Solignac. Last night, I did serve the Cognac in the red box on the shelf behind the glass door. It was dark and rich. We used the small snifters with the etching of a tall ship. I did pause if I should serve it in the small glasses with the painted grape design. That would have been more the French style of service.
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