Recipe: A steak feast to kickstart Christmas celebration

The recipe is taken from the cookbook Blood Sweat & Beers, available at The Milestone or www.the-milestoneonline.com.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE WHOLE DISH

One Porterhouse steak, weighing approximately 1kg
Two sweet white onions
Black pepper
Table salt
Grapeseed oil

FOR THE BEER BATTER

700ml carbonated beer
4 egg whites
680g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
10g table salt

for the chips

8 large floury potatoes
Table salt

METHOd

Place the steak on a wire cooling rack set over a tray and place in the fridge uncovered for two days.

Remove the steak from the fridge and leave it for three hours to come to room temperature before cooking.

To make the beer batter, place the beer, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Gradually add the flour and whisk until a batter is formed. In a separate bowl whisk egg whites until frothy and then fold into batter.

Prepare the chips by peeling potatoes and cutting into chips 2x2cm thick. Rinse under cold running water for 10 minutes. Fill a pan with cold water and add 10 per cent of the water’s weight in table salt and whisk to dissolve. Add the chips and gently bring to a boil. Boil them until they are soft and almost falling apart, then immediately remove from the water and place them on a wire cooling rack. Place rack on baking sheet and put them in the freezer for 45 minutes.

Bring the grapeseed oil in a deep fryer to 140°c then blanch the chips in the oil until it stops bubbling and they almost start to colour. Then remove them from the oil and drain them on kitchen paper, put in the fridge.

Peel the onions whole and slice into one cm thick rings, then sprinkle a little table salt over them and leave them to absorb the salt for five minutes, then rinse them under cold running water to wash away the salt and pat dry on kitchen paper, set aside until needed.

Heat a large heavy base frying pan large enough to fit the steak in to until smoking, then add some grapeseed oil to the pan. Season the steak on both sides with table salt and carefully place it in the hot oil, make sure you move the steak around the pan to get an even browning and carefully turn the steak over every 20 seconds, continue to do this for 5-6 minutes then remove it from the pan and let the steak rest on a wire rack set over a tray for 10 minutes.

Whilst the steak is resting, finish frying the chips and then set aside on kitchen paper. Dip the onion rings into the beer batter and fry in vegetable oil heated to 180°c and cook them until golden, turning them occasionally, let them drain on kitchen paper, season the onion rings and chips with sea salt. Grind a little black pepper over the steak and serve with the chips and onion rings.

n Last week’s recipe was incorrectly attributed to the restaurant Joro, when it was actually by Joni.