Name: Steak au Poivre
Yield: Serves two
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 50 ml (1¾ fl oz) (double) cream; 30 ml (1 fl oz) brandy; salt; 40 g (1½ oz) unsalted butter; 2 tablespoons black peppercorns; 2–3 tablespoons oil; 2 fillet steaks, weighing at least 225 g (8 oz); a squeeze of lemon juice; 100 ml (3½ fl oz) stock (beef or chicken, quite strong); 50 ml (1¾ fl oz) white wine

Preparation info

Serves
two

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Long and Messy Business

By Rowley Leigh

Published 2018

About

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.

Ingredients

2 fillet steaks, weighing at least 225 g (8 oz)
2 tablespoons

Method

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 plat