When it comes to cooking steak, the quality of your ingredients is everything. With this in mind, we've teamed up with our favourite family-run butcher, HG Walter to bring you the perfect recipe for steak and peppercorn sauce.
Established in 1972, HG Walter have steadily garnered a reputation, both amongst professional chefs and keen home cooks, for providing the highest quality range of sustainable meat on the market. See their full range here or pop into their Barons Court store to have a chat.
Ingredients
• 1 rump steak (around 250g)
• 50g unsalted butter
• 280ml red wine jus
• 1 generous shot of brandy
• 2 large banana shallots, finely sliced
• 2 large cloves of garlic, 1 finely sliced, 1 crushed
• A pinch of picked thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp green peppercorns
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• Salt and pepper to season
Method
Before cooking, take the steak out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. Around 30 minutes should do.
1. Season the steak well with salt and pepper. Heat a cast iron pan until smoking before adding a little vegetable oil.
2. Cook the steak for about 5-6 minutes in total, turning every 90 seconds or so. Add the butter with the crushed garlic for the last minute and baste the steak with the foaming butter.
3. Remove the steak from the pan, pour over the foaming butter along with the garlic and thyme, and leave to rest.
For the peppercorn sauce:
4. Put the pan back on a medium heat and add the shallot, garlic, picked thyme and peppercorns. Cook for a few minutes until the shallots have softened.
5. Deglaze the pan with the brandy, use a match or lighter to flambé.
6. Reduce the brandy - this won’t take long so be sure to keep an eye on it. Once the brandy has almost completely evaporated, add half a tub of your red wine jus. Reduce the heat of the pan to avoid burning.
7. Once the jus has melted into the pan, add the double cream and bring to a boil. Reduce to your desired consistency. Season with salt and cracked black pepper.
8. Slice up the steak (we recommend a Chefs Knife for this) and serve on top of the bubbling sauce, straight from the pan.