Show some love – tuck into this seriously indulgent peppered fillet steak in a brandy cream sauce. It’s made with just five ingredients but it’s a knockout! It’s all about the spice, in this case wonderfully pungent black pepper. The refillable Cape Herb & Spice Black Pepper Ceramic Grinder is ideal for this recipe. It grinds the peppercorns just finely enough to encrust that fillet. Being ceramic, this is a sturdy grinder that will last and last, delivering a quieter, perfect grinder every time. Added to the pepper? Some salt of course, a splash of brandy, good stock and cream. That’s it. What you get is a romantic dinner winner, especially when served with a side of elegant rosemary straw fries. Go on, spoil yourself with this steak au poivre.
Ingredients
- 4 plump beef fillet medallions (ask your butcher to cut them at least 5cm thick)
- Cape Herb & Spice ceramic grinder black pepper and salt
- Butter and extra virgin olive oil, for frying
- ¼ cup brandy
- ¼ cup water
- ¾ cup fresh cream
- 50 g (2 x 25g sachets) beef flavour liquid stock concentrate
- ---FOR THE STRAW FRIES---
- 4 large potatoes, peeled
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- Cape Herb & Spice NEW CERAMIC SEA SALT GRINDER
- Vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180 ˚C. Season the fillets all over with salt. Grind loads of pepper onto a wooden board. Roll the fillets through the pepper so their sides are crusted with pepper, but not the top or bottom of the fillets.
Heat a saucepan and add two tablespoons of oil and two tablespoons of butter. Fry the fillets until they start browning nicely. Remove and place fillets in an ovenproof dish. Roast in the oven until done to your liking. The best way to know what’s happening inside a really thick-cut piece of steak? Use a meat thermometer! For rare, the internal temperature of the steak should be 50 ˚C. It’s 54 degrees for medium rare, 57 degrees for medium and 60 for medium well.
Then make the brandy cream sauce while the steak is roasting. Deglaze the pan you fried the steak in by adding the brandy. Cook it for a minute or two, then add the water, cream and liquid stock concentrate. Let it bubble for a minute or two and it’s done!
To make the straw fries, slice the potatoes into matchsticks. (You could of course use a knife, but it’s ever so much easier to use a mandoline with a julienne blade or a veggie peeler with a julienne blade!) Fill a deep saucepan halfway with oil and heat. Tests to see if the oil is hot enough by dropping in one piece of potato. If it starts bubbling away vigorously immediately, the oil is hot enough. Add the potatoes and also drop in the sprigs of rosemary. Potatoes this thinly sliced cook very quickly so don’t walk away! Drain fries on paper towel. Crumble over the fried rosemary and grind over salt.
