Darina Allen

Pan-grilled Steak with Béarnaise Sauce and Pommes Allumettes

Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Medium

  • Serves

    6

Appears in

Simply Delicious 2

Simply Delicious 2

By Darina Allen

Published 1990

  • About

Of all the sauces to serve with steak, Béarnaise is my absolute favourite. We find a heavy-ridged cast-iron grill pan the best to cook the steaks when you don’t need to make a sauce in the pan.

Ingredients

  • 6 × 6 ozs (170 g) sirloin or fillet steaks
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • a little olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground pepper

Garnish

  • fresh watercress (optional)

Method

Prepare the steaks about 1 hour before cooking. Cut a clove of garlic in half; rub both sides of each steak with the cut clove of garlic, grind some black pepper over the steaks and sprinkle on a few drops of olive oil. Turn the steaks in the oil and leave aside. If using sirloin steaks, score the fat at 1 inch (2.5 cm) intervals. Make the Béarnaise Sauce and keep warm. Heat the grill pan, season the steaks with a little salt and put them down onto the hot pan.

The approximate cooking times for each side of the steaks are:

  Sirloin Fillet
rare 2 minutes 5 minutes
medium rare 3 minutes 6 minutes
medium 4 minutes 7 minutes
well done 5 minutes 8–9 minutes

Turn a sirloin steak over onto the fat and cook for 1–2 minutes or until the fat becomes crisp. Put the steaks onto a plate and leave them rest for a few minutes in a warm place while you cook the Pommes Allumettes.

To Serve

Put the steaks on hot plates. Serve the Béarnaise Sauce over one end of the steak or in a little bowl on the side of the plate. Garnish with Pommes Allumettes and fresh watercress.

© 1990 Darina Allen. All rights reserved.

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