Raising the steaks
Dry-aged loin of beef with the fillet attached
There can be no doubt—we are in meat week. Monday gave us a side of lamb. Today it’s a loin of beef, and with the fillet attached. Gotta love chef school. I don’t think I’ve eaten at home since I started. I haven’t needed it, which is just as well given Roberta hoovers up all the take-home noms.
I think chef was as happy as we were about the beef loin. Butchery puts him in the zone. Peace. I can dig it. He asked how many steaks we wanted cooked in the demo. Everyone shouted back, “8”. That’s 1 for each person, right. That’s reasonable. We got 6 generous steaks so we could appreciate the differences in flavour and texture of blue, rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well and well-done cooking. Splendid. Bliss, actually. Steak is happiness, after all.
Chef tickling his way down the beef ribs
The sirloin is almost free of the ribs and chine bones
The dish we had to reproduce in the practical was Entrecôte au Poivre, Pomme Darphin et Tomate Farcie Provençale. Peppered sirloin steak with Darphin potato and stuffed tomato. The steak had to be served medium. We also had to serve a rare steak on its own on a separate plate. Now I’ve cooked many steaks in my time. but I don’t get them all right. I thought I’d learned to err on the side of under-done, but scratch that. Fail imminent.
My medium steak was served medium-well. Oh the shame. And my rare steak was medium-rare. Bugger it.
Why? Not enough oil in the pan for a start, which meant the meat scorched. My pan wasn’t hot enough, which meant the sear formed too slowly to protect the meat from overcooking. I was over cautious here as the steaks had crushed black peppercorns pressed into them and pepper burns quickly. Lastly I miscalculated the carry-over cooking. That’s the cooking that continues for a while after removing from the heat, at the beginning of resting.
Here’s what chef served and asked us to reproduce.
Sirloin steak served medium-rare with Darphin potato and stuffed tomato
Sirloin steak served rare
The steaks tasted as good as they look. The potato—OMG. Take a humble spud, grate it on the mandolin (or mandarin as it’s now known thanks to one of the team’s endearing mispronunciation), disgorge with salt to remove excess water, then into a cast iron pan with clarified butter. Every bit as good as the meat. If 2 stars on a plate wasn’t enough, there’s the sauce. I like pepper sauce but invariably I don’t order any sauce with steak unless I’m in an establishment where, let’s say, I’m prepared for the worst. This sauce was creamy with some warmth from the cognac and the heavenly tang of the green peppercorns. This is another dish that could do with some baguette for mop-up duties.
Here’s my effort. Don’t giggle.
Overcooked steak. Potato caught around the edges. Tomato stuffing too dry. Sauce good. Dunno why I don’t have a photo of my attempt at a rare steak.
My report card would read, “knows better.”