A really good piece of steak can seem hard to replicate at home when popular restaurants have it down to a fine art. Cheaper cuts of meat can be tough and fatty or turn out dry and flavourless with one wrong step in the cooking process. While you can dunk an average slice of steak into garlic butter or peppercorn sauce, learning how to do it properly will pay off. And it’s surprisingly simple with a careful recipe. Cornwall’s culinary icon, Rick Stein, says that ribeye steak “works wonderfully” with peppercorns, chips, and a “rich, buttery béarnaise”.
In his BBC series, Rick Stein’s Cornwall, Rick shares his insights: “The sauce can be tricky to make, but it’s well worth mastering.” The key to this mouth-watering recipe lies in good quality steak, oil and a hot pan for cooking.
Method
1. Make the peppermix
To prepare the pepper mix, blend all ingredients in a spice grinder. Season both sides of the steaks with the pepper mix and a pinch of salt. Store leftover spice mix in an airtight container for later use on chicken, lamb, or roasted vegetables.
2. Make the bearnaise sauce
For the best bearnaise sauce, Rick suggests making your own clarified butter. Simply melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat, then skim off the frothy foam from the surface and discard it.
The white milk solids will settle at the bottom, while the clear yellow butterfat rises to the top. Gently pour the clear fat into a bowl or jug. You can discard the milky residue from the pan.
According to Rick, clarified butter is perfect for frying as it can be heated to a very high temperature before burning, unlike regular butter. Because clarified butter is pure fat, it keeps well. You can pour the end product into a sterilised jar and store it in the fridge for up to six months.
To prepare the béarnaise sauce, combine the vinegar, tarragon, shallot, pepper, and three-quarters of a tablespoon of water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the liquid reduces to about a tablespoon.
Set a heatproof bowl over a barely simmering water, ensuring it doesn’t touch the water. Add three-quarters of a tablespoon of water and the egg yolk, then whisk until creamy and voluminous.
Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the clarified butter. Mix in the tarragon and shallot reduction, then season with a generous pinch of salt.
3. Cook the steaks
To cook the steaks, ensure they are at room temperature. Lightly brush a ridged griddle pan with oil and place it over high heat.
Once the pan is hot, add the steaks and cook for one to two minutes per side for rare, two to two and a half minutes for medium, or up to four minutes for well done, depending on their thickness. Remove from the pan, cover with kitchen foil, and let rest for five minutes at room temperature.
Rick recommends serving the steak with béarnaise sauce along with a side of butterhead lettuce salad or green beans.