Method
Melt the butter in a small non-stick saucepan and add the finely diced shallots and cook on a medium heat for several minutes and then add the chestnut mushrooms. Turn the heat down and stir until cooked and lightly brown.
Now add the beef stock and allow to simmer for several minutes to “marry” the flavours. Next add the teaspoon of truffle porcini sauce and the 150 ml of double cream and turn the heat to low and allow the sauce to reduce down for a couple of minutes, then reserve.
Blanch the green vegetables you intend to serve with your steak and refresh in cold water, then drain and reserve.
Take a teaspoon of the crushed black peppercorns and stir into your reserved sauce. Take the remaining pepper and coat both sides of your sirloin steaks.
Cooking the Steak
People often mess up cooking steak at home because they don’t get the pan hot enough. If you have your smoke detector close to your kitchen then open a window to prevent your alarm inadvertently going off.
Get a 28 cm Non-stick frying pan hot before you put the steaks in then use a pair of tongs to hold both steaks together like a sandwich with the fat side down.
Cooking the fat first will add some flavour to the pan and give your finished steak a better appearance.
Once the fat is lightly brown then lay the steaks flat in the pan and season with sea salt.
Cook the steaks to your liking turning them just once, allow the steaks to rest on a warm plate for 5 minutes before serving.
Reheat your vegetables while your steaks are resting and pour the warm truffle and peppercorn sauce into two small bowls or ramekins.
Place the ramekins onto warm dinner plates, then sprinkle a little truffle earth onto the top of each sauce.
Suggested vegetables
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Green Sprouting Broccoli
Sugarsnap peas
Lightly roasted pecan nuts (optional)
Chef’s Tips
If you wish to serve potatoes with the steak then I suggest you keep it simple because of the complex flavours of the sauce and steak, so a baked potato or baby potatoes will do just fine, and without butter or sour cream because you have sauce to dip them into.
Some of you might have noticed that there is no brandy (cognac) in my modern version of peppercorn sauce, this was intentional. Usually, the cognac is there to add depth of flavour, but in my sauce the porcini and truffle add plenty of flavour making the alcohol unnecessary.
All photographs and recipes are the property of :copyright:Kevin Ashton 2019 unless stated.