Minute Steak with Peppercorn Sauce

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed frying pan or cast iron skillet, the widest you have
• •Kitchen paper
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Get the pan screaming

   Put a heavy frying pan over a high heat and leave it there. You want it properly hot before anything goes near it. Two, three minutes at least. Add a splash of oil and a knob of butter together. The butter will foam and spit. That's fine. When the foam subsides and the butter smells warm and nutty and just begins to darken at the edges, the pan is ready. Not before.

   Take the steaks out of the fridge a good twenty minutes before you cook. Cold meat in a hot pan tightens and toughens. Room temperature meat relaxes into the heat.
2. 2

   Cook the steaks fast

   Pat the steaks dry with kitchen paper and season them generously with fine sea salt on both sides. Lay them into the pan, away from you, and don't touch them. Sixty seconds. You'll hear a fierce sizzle that settles into a steady hiss. When the edges have turned from raw pink to grey and are just beginning to curl, flip them. Another sixty seconds. The surface should be browned and caramelised in patches, not uniformly dark. Lift them onto a warm plate and let them rest while you make the sauce. They'll carry on cooking. Trust them.

   Minute steaks are thin. They forgive almost nothing. A minute per side gives you a steak that's pink in the middle and charred at the edges, which is exactly right. Two minutes per side and you've lost it.
3. 3

   Build the sauce in the pan

   Turn the heat down to medium. The pan will be full of brown, sticky bits and rendered fat. Good. That's flavour. Add the drained green peppercorns and press them lightly with the back of a spoon so some crack and some stay whole. Let them sizzle for thirty seconds until they smell peppery and sharp. Now the brandy. Pour it in and stand back. It will bubble violently and may catch a flame if you're cooking on gas, which is nothing to worry about. Let the alcohol cook off until the liquid in the pan has reduced to almost nothing, just a sticky glaze.

   If the brandy flames, leave it alone. It'll burn itself out in a few seconds. Trying to smother it makes a mess. Patience.
4. 4

   Finish with cream

   Pour in the cream and stir it through, scraping up everything stuck to the bottom of the pan. Those brown bits dissolve into the cream and turn it from plain to extraordinary. Add the mustard and stir. Let the sauce simmer gently for two or three minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste it. It should be rich, peppery, slightly sharp from the brandy, with a warmth that builds at the back of your throat. More salt if it needs it. Pour any resting juices from the steak plate into the sauce and stir them through.

5. 5

   Plate and serve

   Put the steaks back onto warm plates. Spoon the sauce over generously, letting it pool around the meat. Finish with a few flakes of sea salt. Serve immediately with whatever you like alongside. Chips if you've made them. A green salad if you haven't. Bread to mop up the sauce if nothing else. The sauce is the thing. Make sure there's enough of it.

Chef Tips

• •Ask your butcher for a thin-cut rump or sirloin, no thicker than half a centimetre. If the steak is too thick, it won't cook through in a minute per side and you'll lose the charred edges that make this worth doing. Flatten it between two sheets of cling film with a rolling pin if you need to.
• •The brandy isn't optional. It cuts through the richness of the cream and gives the sauce a depth that wine can't match. You don't need anything expensive. A miniature bottle from the supermarket will do three or four batches and keeps indefinitely.
• •Green peppercorns in brine are what you want, not dried, not freeze-dried. They're soft enough to crush with a spoon and have a brightness that dried peppercorns lack. A small jar lasts for months in the fridge once opened.
• •This pairs well with a simple green salad dressed with a sharp vinaigrette, the acidity cuts the richness of the cream sauce. Or chips, if you've got the energy. Bread, honestly, is enough.

Advance Preparation

• •There is no making this ahead. It takes fifteen minutes from cold pan to plate. That's the whole point.
• •The peppercorn sauce can be made without the steak and kept warm for ten minutes or so with a lid on, but it's best made in the pan the steak was cooked in, where all the flavour lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)