Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to City Suppers.
I am Tim Anderson.
You may remember me from Master Chef, which I won two years ago.
Today, I am going to show you some really simple, quick recipes.
This one in particular is easy to do, but it is also easy to screw up and I am going
to show you how to avoid that.
It is steak with Bearnaise sauce.
[music]
So, first we are going to make a Bearnaise.
A Bearnaise is a lovey sauce.
It is a buttery emulsion with vinegar and shallots and tarragon, but as many of you
know if you have tried it before, it is very easy to ruin.
It is very easy to split.
It does not always come together properly and it can be very,
very, stressful.
Before we start emulsifying we will start with the base flavor, which is a shallot vinegar
reduction.
If you want to try this at home you can check the full list of ingredients in the description
box.
One shallot, so I chop this up nice and finely.
This goes into a pan, a little pan, the littlest pan you have.
To the shallots, we will add a good amount of black pepper, a couple of tablespoons of
white wine vinegar, and then a couple tablespoons of water just to cover the shallots.
There you go.
So, get that on a high heat and we want it to reduce to very, very, little liquid.
We only want one or two tablespoons left over.
While that is reducing we are going to prep our tarragon, lovely, lovely, stuff.
Really anaiseedy.
We will strip the leaves and chop them up.
We will also take the stalks which are tough and not pleasant, break them up and put them
in with the shallots and vinegar.
We will bundle up our tarragon leaves and just run them through with the knife.
The first trick in making this Bearnaise, is something that applies to all kinds of
dishes is how to separate an egg.
Get a bowl, crack the egg, get rid of the shell and just use your fingers.
Let the white slip through it.
Now, this vinegar, shallot, tarragon thing is already smelling amazing and we are going
to finish off the base to our sauce.
Now this is not a traditional ingredient in a Bearnaise, but I quite like it.
A little bit of mustard, just a little bit.
I think it matches with steak quite nicely and with the tarragon.
We are just going to whisk that together.
We are going to set this over a pot of barely simmering water.
That's just to pasteurize the egg and get it warm.
The vinegar has nicely reduced.
We only have a little bit of liquid in there.
The egg mixture with the mustard has thickened up pretty nicely.
Everything will keep warm.
We are having the egg mixture set over this hot water.
So, what we will do now is let this cool slightly, otherwise it will cook the egg.
Is just strain it in, give it a whisk.
Now, comes the fun part, the emulsification.
Now, I will start with cold butter.
We are going to do about 75 grams and we are going to cut this into little chunks, little
cubes basically.
What we will do is we will add these two at a time, cold, to the warm mixture.
They will melt at a similar rate at which you would drizzle them.
So, you are introducing the fat from the butter in the same way basically.
It's just so simple.
Look at how beautifully that is emulsifying already.
So, just keep adding the butter, two at a time waiting for the other ones to melt.
You know it is working if it starts to thicken up.
You can stop here if you want your Bearnaise to be a sort of pourable consistency, but
keep going if you want it to be thicker and more spoonable.
Beautiful, it is all coming together.
Now, then the tarragon goes in at the very end.
We will season it as well, a little bit of salt.
So, that is done.
We do not have to worry about that anymore.
Set that aside.
Now, we will focus on the main attraction, the steak.
We need a big pan, a big pan that has a heavy base that will distribute
heat evenly and hold that heat in.
We are going to get a little bit of oil in there.
I am using olive oil.
So, while that is heating up, we will season our steak.
Black pepper and sea salt or rock salt.
Lots of it.
Be generous.
A little bit more olive oil on the steak itself.
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Our pan is now very, very, hot.
You can see it is starting to smoke.
The oil is very shimmery.
So, first what we will do, we have got this strip of fat along the edge of the sirloin,
and this is a sirloin only thing, we are going to put that on there first, for two reasons.
First, we want to render off some of that fat, sort of lubricate and flavor the rest
of the meat.
So, leave it sitting on the fat for just about a minute.
So, once that is nice and brown like that, you can start cooking properly.
Now, here's where things get very, very, stressful.
Not really, don't worry.
Just remember to turn frequently.
You want to leave it sitting there for a little while, I would say about 30 seconds to get
a nice dark crust, but by turning frequently you will make the heat redistribute.
So, instead of getting a well done bit along the edge and then underdone throughout, you
will get a more even cook.
Ooh, yeah.
It is getting nice and brown already.
All right.
Now, I am going to start testing this already.
This is cooking really, really, quickly.
Now, I reckon, I reckon this is done.
This is done for me.
Okay.
So, the next key thing to remember is to let it rest.
While that is resting there is just one last garnish to do.
Obviously, we want to have a balanced healthy meal, we are going to have with all of our
butter and beef, we are going to have a little salad.
Just some simple watercress here.
That is it with a nice peppery kick to go with all the richer flavors here, a little
bit of olive oil, a splash of vinegar.
Toss it together and there you have it.
Now, it is a healthy dinner.
The steak has had a nice rest.
Now, comes the moment of truth.
Let's see how I did.
Yeah, nice.
So beautifully pink, but cooked through.
I would say that is more of a medium than a medium rare, but hey, still nice and juicy.
This is just about perfect actually.
I am quite happy with this steak.
Maybe I will eat it.
For a fancy steak a fancy plate.
Scoop it all up.
Have our healthy salad off to one side.
I joke about the salad, but I do like the pepperiness of the watercress.
You can use rocket as well.
Finally, our Bearnaise which is still lovely and warm.
It has been sitting over that warm water, still beautifully emulsified.
There is not a drop of fat coming out of there.
Now, I am going to use a gravy boat because there is one here.
It does not matter.
If you do not have one put it in a ramekin or just drizzle it right over the steak.
There we go.
Perfect steak with full proof Bearnaise sauce.
Thanks for watching everybody.
I hope you enjoyed the City Supper series and we would love to get your feedback.
Enjoy.