Really Simple Cream & Mustard Sauce

REALLY SIMPLE CREAM & MUSTARD SAUCE

I like a nice piquant pepper and brandy sauce with my steak or a cream and mustard sauce with a pork loin chop. Here is an in between sauce that's a good substitute for both. It goes perfectly with fried or griddled steak, pork loin, pork chops or chicken breast. And it's so simple its probably illegal!

Ingredients (for 2)

50-75ml of water

15-20g unsalted butter cut into small cubes.

2 or 3 heaped table spoons of creme fraiche

100g of Philadelphia cream cheese

1 teaspoon of french mustard

The cooking:

Fry your steak or chop as you like it in a pan. When you remove the meat, deglaze the meat juices and crispy bits from the base of the pan with 50 to 75ml of pre-boiled water over a low heat, stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon for about 1 minute or 2. Add the butter and continue stirring until it has melted. Then chuck in the rest of the ingredients and stir until they are all combined and you have a smooth sauce. You might have to break up the cream cheese a bit to achieve this. Finish by grinding in a generous seasoning of black pepper.

That's it! Honsetly, I am not kidding that is all that is needed. Nice touch is to fry up some sliced mushrooms in butter and add them to the sauce before you spoon it generously over your steaks.

Steak Bearnaise

Fillet steak with a Bearnaise sauce

This is such a luxurious, indulgent dish. Like all the recipes in this blog; sensational results from embarrassingly little effort. And all the emphasis is on flavour not poncy presentation.This dish was always a favourite of my father's. He used to be a roofer. So Dad, if you're up there.... (I love that Stuart Francis joke).

Ingredients

4 matured, pedigree herd fillet steaks (better still get your butcher to give you a whole fillet and you cut your own steaks to the thickness you want. I love them about 1 1/2 inches thick)

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of double cream

1/4 teaspoon of salt

A pinch of cayenne pepper

1 table spoon of white wine vinegar

150g softened butter cut up into tiny cubes

1 teaspoon of chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1/4 teaspoon of finely chopped parsley

1/4 teaspoon of finely chopped chives

The cooking

Start by making a bain marie; find a heat proof bowl that is wide enough to sit on top of a saucepan of water, and deep enough so that when it is there, the base is just below the surface of the water. Keep the bowl cool and clear of the saucepan when you start your sauce, and heat the water in the saucepan so it is gently bubbling. In the cold bowl, mix your egg yolks, cream, salt, cayenne pepper and vinegar and whisk together so all the ingredients are mixed together. Then, place the bowl onto your saucepan of bubbling water and continue to whisk until it starts to thicken. Then, cube by cube, add your butter and continue to whisk as each cube melts. Continue this process until all the butter has been melted and blended and your sauce has become fairly thick. Add you tarragon, parsley and chives and stir in. Turn the heat off under your saucepan and leave your sauce in the bain marie to rest.

Now fry or grill your steak. Turn the heat up as high as it will go. While you are waiting for the pan or the grill to heat up, pour a dribble of vegetable oil onto your hands and massage it into both sides of all your steaks. Then season with a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black or green pepper. Wait until the heat in your pan or your grill is absolutely searing before starting to cook your steaks. Then cook for 1 1/2 minutes on each sides for the perfect, pink in the middle rare steak.If you are frying, prod them occasionally to stop them from sticking. Alternatively, if you wish to ruin them, 2 minutes each side for medium steaks or up to 3 minutes on each side if you want it well done and shite.

Serve with sweet veg such as baby carrots or mange tout peas and crispy, sauteed potatoes or chips.Or if you are feeling really luxuriant, gratin dauphinois.