“It is tricky to get a good steak right. But if you do cook a steak at home, you should choose your steak from your butcher, ask where it’s from, the breed, and how long it was hung. Keep things simple. Try not to overcook and always ask how people want it cooked. Well done is always a waste of a steak in my view.”
Serves one
Prep time: 10 minutes, plus 1 hour for roasting garlic
Cooking time: 5 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 really good steak of your liking, I’m enjoying flat irons just now
1 sprig thyme
1 bulb garlic
1 knob butter, for frying
100g butter, softened
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon beef fat
1 handful of good salad leaves
A few red onion rings
1 teaspoon grain mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon apple vinegar
2 tablespoons cold-pressed rapeseed oil
Good salt and pepper
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C / Gas Mark 4
Remove the steak from the fridge.
Wrap the garlic bulb in foil with a little oil and salt. Bake for 1 hour.
Remove the garlic from the oven and turn up the heat to 200°C / Gas Mark 6.
To make the roast garlic butter, simply remove the garlic from the foil and squeeze the roasted flesh into a bowl. Add 100g butter, the parsley, season with salt and pepper and mix. Roll the butter mix up in a sheet of greaseproof paper like a sausage and refrigerate. Once firm, cut into discs the size of a pound coin.
Make a salad dressing by adding the honey, mustard and vinegar to a bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper then whisk whilst trickling in the rapeseed oil. Set to one side.
Place a good frying pan on the hob and take it to a moderate heat, then add the beef fat. Season the steak and add to the pan with the thyme. Turn the heat up a bit if needed, then add the knob of butter and continue to cook on each side until it begins to caramelise. This should take about one minute on each side. Season again and place in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes. Remove and rest on a plate in a warm place. Just before serving place a disc of garlic butter to the still-warm steak to melt.
Mix the red onion with the salad leaves and toss with the dressing. Season and place onto a fresh plate with the steak.