sauces for steak
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Discussion

shirt

Original Poster:

25,077 posts

225 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
recent perfect steak / slow cooking experiments have been a massive success [last night's fillet was beef heaven] but it seems i am crap at making sauces to go with them, even following delia's recipes.

i want:

a good pepper sauce
bernaise
a blue cheese sauce

my pepper sauce ends up being too bland with too big a kick when you find some peppercorn, and the blue cheese ends up too salty. recipes for these please plus any other you rely on thumbup

mechsympathy

57,427 posts

279 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
If the peppercorn sauce is cream based it'll take a surprising amount of salt as the cream makes it rich but also bland, and blue cheese is pretty salty in itself.

sleep envy

62,260 posts

273 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
sauce? on a steak??

heathen!


grumbledoak

32,389 posts

257 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
Your peppercorn sauce sounds like too much cream, and inadequately crushed pepper corns (?)

Not a fan of bernaise, so can't advise.

You can get a good basic blue cheese sauce with just a chunk of that Danish Blue (150g ish) and a tub of creme fraiche (200g ish). Just warm them to melt the cheese. Works well on steak, burgers, or pasta, and it freezes & microwaves!

Edited by grumbledoak on Thursday 9th April 17:11

Shaw Tarse

31,836 posts

227 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
sleep envy said:
sauce? on a steak??

heathen!
Depends on the steak, fillet can be bland. Ribeye has more flavour.

Lefty Guns

19,856 posts

226 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
grumbledoak said:
You can get a good basic blue cheese sauce with just a chunk of that Danish Blue (150g ish) and a tub of creme fraiche (200g ish). Just warm them to melt the cheese. Works well on steak, burgers, or pasta, and it freezes & microwaves!
I tried this for the first time a couple of years ago and it's ace.

Nefarious

989 posts

289 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
Steak Béarnaise
4 top quality fillet steaks
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 shallots, very finely chopped
5 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp white peppercorns, roughly crushed
1 bay leaf
4 egg yolks
8oz butter
3 tsp chopped fresh chervil
Salt
6 tbsp strong beef stock (ordinary beef stock reduced by ½)

1) The steaks are the last thing to cook, but you want to brush them in olive oil and black pepper at least 1 hour before cooking them
2) For the béarnaise sauce, put the tarragon, shallots, and bay leaf in a shallow pan with the vinegar, and simmer until the mixture is reduced by ½. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
3) Put the egg yolks in a glass bowl with a small knob of the butter, and add in the vinegar mix. Put the bowl on top of a pan of v.hot (but not bubbling) water. Whisk the mixture until creamy.
4) Keep adding the butter, a knob at a time, being careful not to overheat the mixture (you don’t want the eggs to cook)
5) When all the butter has been added, the mixture should be the consistency of whipped cream. At this point add the chervil (or parsley if you can’t get chervil) and a little salt.
6) Get your steak pan (hopefully a heavy bottomed griddle) very very hot, and cook the steaks as rare as you can tolerate. Set the cooked steaks onto warmed plates to rest for 3-4 minutes.
7) Into the hot steak pan, pour the beef stock. Everything will go mental and the stock will quickly reduce to a thick liquor. Drizzle this around the edge of the plates.
8) Serve a healthy blob of sauce onto each steak, and serve with fine beans and new potatoes (preferably on a separate plate).

shirt

Original Poster:

25,077 posts

225 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
i usually stick sauces in a little ramekin for dipping, i don't smother the meat.


this was the peppercorn sauce although i didn't add any spirit
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/517257

it just tasted odd.

the blue cheese sauce i make is exactly as you describe grumbledoak. will have to try a different cheese, maybe dolcelatte and add a bit of unsalted butter?




grumbledoak

32,389 posts

257 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
shirt said:
the blue cheese sauce i make is exactly as you describe grumbledoak. will have to try a different cheese, maybe dolcelatte and add a bit of unsalted butter?
I suspect I'll be trying adding the juice of half a lemon in the very near future!

Romanymagic

3,298 posts

243 months

Thursday 9th April 2009
quotequote all
I use these two sauce recipe's all the time. Stolen for the interweb many, many moons ago and just keep them to hand in my cookery cupboard.


My favourite Blue Cheese sauce recipe:

200g Roquefort
4 tbsp of sour cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
Pinch of chilli powder

Combine Roquefort with sour cream, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, paprika and chili pepper in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the cheese has melted then pour over steaks as required.

My favourite au poivre (pepper sauce) sauce recipe:

1 knob of Butter
2 Shallots, finely chopped
2 tbsp green peppercorns
250ml beef stock
4 tbsp brandy
7 tbsp dry White wine
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard,
7 tbsp double cream

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and sweat the shallots for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the green peppercorns and the beef stock, turn the heat up to high and simmer vigorously for 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds.

Pour in the brandy and white wine and simmer for 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds again. Stir in the mustard and the double cream, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until ready to serve