Steak au Poivre

In every bistro in the world, you can order this pan-fried, flamed steak with its simple but sinus-clearing pepper-and-cream sauce. Served canonically with a daunting pile of crisp frites (French fries to you and me), this is a standard item in French cooking in the real world of brasseries and no-star country inns. But in the literature of haute cuisine, it gets no respect.

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