Sunday 22 January 2012

Perfect cure the evening after the night before

It was a rather long day in the office, which let's be honest may not have been helped by me suffering from a slight hangover after a rather boozy but rather brilliant night round my best friend's house (shots of Ameretto and Malibu on a Wednesday night is I admit rather excessive).  So whenever I'm feeling a bit like this my body either craves something really spicy and cleansing or stodge and on this occasion it was most definitely stodge.....
Perfect stodge and all round comfort food is mashed potato, and I'm a complete traditionalist here- quite simply I boil up the potatoes, drain, whilst they are in the colander i bang the pan back on the hob, warm some butter and either cream or milk, add the potatoes back in and get to work rather aggressively with the masher (as the potato ricer is being held hostage at my friend Amy Lou Lou's - she loves bragging about her perfectly smooth mash), season with sea salt and rather a lot of pepper and bish bash bosh after rather a lot of crashing around i have my perfect mash.
But as much as i love my mash the steak and peppercorn source were the stars of this dish so i share my perfect steak dinner recipe with you, although i say its perfect but I'm still thinking of tweaks now, I'm nothing if not open to suggestions!

Steak Supper (Steak and Peppercorn Sauce)

a good piece of steak (I went for rump- lush)
couple of shallots, finely chopped
fat clove of garlic finely chopped
100ml chicken stock (cube is fine for this)
100ml of wine or I think 50ml of brandy will work just as well, when i try it i will let you know!
Green Peppercorns in brine - now I'm not going to tell you how many you should use as its all to taste I'm a complete pepper addict so i use about a tablespoon but looking at other recipes it tends to be a couple of teaspoons. what i would suggest is that you drain them and pat them on a bit of kitchen paper so you don't get the taste of brine in the sauce.
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp double cream (extra thick stuff even better here)
Get your pan nice and hot add a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil, throw in your steak and cook to your requirement I wanted medium rare so went for 3 minutes each side but to be honest given that you leave the meat to rest a while I'd next time just go 2 1/2 on each side. So cook your steak and then leave it to rest on a board. In the pan throw the shallots and garlic in with the juices and a little extra butter cook on high heat, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes then add your wine / brandy and stock. let it bubble away manicly until liquid has reduced by at least half then stir in your peppercorns, mustard and cream. Let it all warm through and you're all ready to go!


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