A Long and Messy Business. Rowley Leigh

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СКАЧАТЬ freshly ground black pepper and a little

      squeeze of lemon juice to taste. Lift the hocks from their

      stock and carve the meat from them, arranging it on top

      of the lentils and dressing the dish with the sauce.

      Boiled potatoes may also be served.

      WINE: The brasserie staple, when speaking of red wine,

      is a racy and fruity Beaujolais. In truth, this dish will not

      struggle with any red.

      32

      A Good GCSE

      Steak au Poivre

      Albert Roux once maintained that if he wanted to assess

      the ability of a young chef he would ask them to fry an

      egg. The care with which they would break the shell, the

      patience and low temperature they needed to cook the

      white so that it did not toughen, the manner in which

      they would gently baste the yolk and thus end up with a

      perfectly cooked example would tell him all he needed to

      know. If a fried egg was the eleven-plus of cookery I think

      a peppered steak might be a good GCSE or even ‘A’ level.

      There are a number of trucs – a French expression, best

      translated as something between a trick and a technique

      – involved in the operation. Firstly, assuming you have

      bought well and have two beautiful chunks of fillet, the

      meat should be brought to room temperature well in

      advance of cooking. If the centre of the meat is at ambient

      temperature, this will drastically shorten the cooking time

      and the rest period. Secondly, the peppercorns must be

      broken but no more: a crafty cook will then sieve the

      ground corns and use what is left, retaining the finely

      ground pepper for some other use. If finely ground pepper

      is used on the steak it will burn and make it bitter.

      The cook must colour the meat well on all sides, in a

      mixture of oil and butter, and salt the meat before cooking

      (frowned upon by some, but essential for flavour in my

      book), and cook it until the centre of the steak it reaches

      just over blood heat, then let it rest in a warm place while

      they make the sauce. If the cooking of the meat will test

      technical ability, the sauce will test the sense of taste. It

      must be unctuous without being cloying and will need

      just a hint of acidity and bite to do the steak justice.

      I am assuming that you will want your steak rare. It is,

      dare I say it, comme il faut, although I am always happy

      to be guided by the customer in this regard. If he or she

      wants their steak well done, that is their prerogative. I have

      to say I was much heartened when we cooked beef

      Wellington for a seventieth birthday party of a hundred

      and two people. The beef was cooked to a beautiful rosy

      rare and we sent it out, anticipating a few requests for

      some to be more cooked. It is a measure of how far we have

      come gastronomically – or perhaps how orthodoxy has

      taken hold – that we received no such request and every

      plate came back clean.

      33

      January

      STEAK AU POIVRE

      Always best as a dinner for two in my book: considering the

      expense, this is perhaps wise. Some people prefer using

      white peppercorns; it is a matter of taste.

      Serves two.

      2 fillet steaks, weighing at

      least 225g (8oz)

      2 tablespoons black

      peppercorns

      40g (1½oz) unsalted butter

      2–3 tablespoons oil

      30ml (1fl oz) brandy

      50ml (13⁄4fl oz) white wine

      100ml (3½fl oz) stock (beef

      or chicken, quite strong)

      50ml (13⁄4fl oz) double cream

      a squeeze of lemon juice

      salt

      Bring the meat to room temperature for about an hour.

      Pound the peppercorns in a mortar with the pestle until

      they are all broken – no more – then sieve out the dust,

      saving this for another purpose. The peppercorns can be

      ground in a blender or spice grinder, but great care needs

      to be taken to ensure that they are merely broken so that

      they do not burn.

      Spread out the pepper on a plate. Press the fillets into

      the peppercorns, pushing down so that the pepper adheres

      to one side of the steak, and season the same side with salt.

      Melt half of the butter in the oil in a small frying pan. Once

      the butter is foaming, place the steaks, pepper-side down,

      in СКАЧАТЬ