My Saturday night Steak-Frites

The wife was out Saturday night at a bachelorette party, I was alone with the dogs and the Panthers’ first preseason game was on….. what should I eat? Duh, Steak-frites (modified). It’s a simple meal and not very technical, but damn is it good.

Went to Whole Foods and picked up a nice rib-eye, a few russets, some fresh horseraddish and heavy cream (easy great sauce) and a bottle of Berringer Knights Valley Alluvium 2001. I had planned on firing up the weber and piling on the lump charcoal to grill the steak but it was raining about 8 billion gallons a second so I opted for the grill pan on the stove.

The key to making great fries is to soak, blanch then fry. First I peeled the potatoes and cut the fries on a mandolin to about 1 cm. Soak the fries in ice water for a couple of hours then rinse under cold water. Preheat the oil for the blanch to 280. Blanch the fries in small batches for about 6-7 mins or until they start to become a little translucent. Remove the fries onto a sheet pan and let them rest at least 15 to 20 mins. Turn the heat up to 375 and after the rest cook the fries for about 2-3 mins until they are nice and golden brown. Dump them out into a bowl lined with a towel and sprinkle rough sea salt ( kosher will work) that you’ve run through the mortar and pestle just enough to break it up a tad (table salt works fine too). Remove the towl, sprinkle some chopped flat leaf parsley and drizzle with a little white truffle oil. Serve immediatley. Heaven. (recipe mostly stolen from Les Halles Cookbook)

 

The horseraddish sauce is to damn easy for how good it is. Take one pint of heavy cream and a medium to small sized horseraddish root. Peel then grate the horseraddish root using a microplane grater into the heavy cream and reduce untill it thickens. Add a little salt and thats it.

The steak was seasoned with fresh cracked black pepper and a little kosher salt. “Grilled” on the grill pan until mid-rare (on the rare side) turning only once.