Steak Frites

Chips fried twice at two temperatures, with the steak cooked in the gap and rested while they go back in.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

For the chips

• 800 g floury potatoes
• 2 litres oil for frying, or beef dripping
• salt

For the steak

• 2 sirloin steaks, 250 g each, 3 cm thick
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 30 g butter
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 100 ml red wine
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• salt and coarse pepper

Method

1. THE CHIPS ARE FRIED TWICE AND THE STEAK WAITS FOR THEM. First at 140C to cook the inside through while the outside stays pale, then cooled, then at 190C for colour and crust. One frying cannot do both: hot enough to crisp the outside, the middle is raw; cool enough to cook through, the outside is leather. The order of the whole dish follows from that -- first fry, steak cooked and resting, second fry, plate.
2. THEY ARE RINSED AND DRIED BEFORE THE FIRST FRY, which is the opposite of the potato gratin on this site. Surface starch here browns before the inside cooks and makes them stick together in the basket. Rinse until the water runs clear, then dry on a cloth -- water in hot oil is dangerous as well as bad for the chip.
3. AND THEY ARE COOLED COMPLETELY BETWEEN THE TWO FRIES. At least 30 minutes, and an hour is better. Straight from the first fry into the second, the steam still coming out of them keeps the crust soft.
4. THE STEAK IS DRY, THE PAN IS SMOKING, AND IT IS NOT MOVED. Patted dry, seasoned just before it goes in, and left alone for the full time on each side. Moved about, it never builds a crust.
5. Potatoes peeled and cut into 1 cm batons. Rinsed under cold water until it runs clear, then dried thoroughly on a cloth.
6. Oil heated to 140C. The chips lowered in in two batches and cooked 7 to 8 minutes, until soft to a knife and still pale.
7. Lifted out and spread on a rack to cool COMPLETELY, at least 30 minutes.
8. A heavy pan heated until it just smokes. The oil in, then the seasoned steaks.
9. 3 minutes a side for 3 cm sirloin, medium rare, without moving them. The butter added for the last minute and spooned over.
10. The steaks lifted onto a warm plate to REST 8 minutes. This is not optional and it is also exactly how long the second fry takes.
11. Shallots softened in the steak pan 2 minutes, the wine poured in and boiled down to a couple of spoonfuls, the mustard and any resting juices whisked in off the heat.
12. The oil brought up to 190C and the chips fried a second time, 2 to 3 minutes, until deep gold and noisy.
13. Drained, salted from a height, and served at once with the steak, the pan sauce and the parsley.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes