Fillet of beef with mixed peppercorn sauce
Serve traditionally, with homemade chips, onion rings, watercress and slices of tomato
Difficulty and servings
Serves 2
Easily doubled
Preperation and cooking times
Prep 5 mins
Cook 20 mins
- Heat a frying pan over a medium-to-high heat, then pour in the oil and half of the clarified butter. Season the steak with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and cook to your liking (2 mins each side for medium-rare, 3 mins each side for medium, depending on the thickness of your steaks). Be sure to seal the rounded edges, too. Transfer to a plate.
- Add the knob of butter to the pan, then fry the shallots, mushrooms and peppercorns over a medium heat for 5 mins, until the shallots have softened and the mushrooms browned. Return the steaks to the pan. Heat the brandy in a metal ladle, light with a match then carefully pour into the hot pan, standing as far back as you can. Once the pan has stopped flaming, remove the steaks again.
- Pour the wine into the pan, turn up the heat and boil rapidly until reduced by half. This will take about 5 mins. Add the stock and reduce again, this time by two-thirds. Stir the cream in to the sauce and allow it to thicken slightly. Check the sauce for seasoning, then return the fillets to the pan to warm through, spooning the sauce over. Serve straight away.
Know-how
The process of clarifying butter removes the milk solids, which burn easily when frying at high temperatures. To make your own clarified butter, melt a little more butter than you need in a small pan, then drain off the yellow part, discarding the white solids left at the bottom.
594 kcalories, protein 32g, carbohydrate 1g, fat 42 g, saturated fat 21g, fibre 1g, salt 0.57 g
Recipe from Good Food magazine, September 2006.
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http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2904/
Difficulty and servings
Serves 2
Easily doubled
Preperation and cooking times
Prep 5 mins
Cook 20 mins
Totally traditional
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 25g clarified butter (see Know-how, below)
- 2 fillet steaks (ideally beef matured for 3-5 weeks), about 140g/5oz each, at room temperature
- knob of butter
- 2 large shallots , finely chopped
- 6 medium mushrooms , sliced
- 2 tsp green and pink peppercorns , crushed
- 3 tbsp brandy
- 100ml red wine
- 200ml good-quality beef stock
- 3 tbsp double cream
594 kcalories, protein 32g, carbohydrate 1g, fat 42 g, saturated fat 21g, fibre 1g, salt 0.57 g

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