The most important person you will ever cook for is yourself and when I found myself home alone recently, I indulged in this dreamy take on steak & chips with peppercorn sauce. Steak & chips or Steak Frites is one of my all-time favourite meals, but I often find I can’t be bothered to make it because I don’t want to be dealing with making French fries, especially if I’m dining alone. This is no longer an issue, because I’ve found a handy little hack that is so delicious and requires very little effort.
I typically make this recipe for just myself, but you could easily amend it to feed two by simply adding another steak and doubling the quantity of gnocchi. It’s as simple as that. Whenever I make this I always have a little sauce left over so it would absolutely suit two or could be frozen to use another time, but it’s not so much that you wouldn’t feel good about making it for just yourself. It’s versatile and who knows? Maybe you’ll indulge and eat it all. It’s so delicious that I wouldn’t blame you.
When it comes to the steak you’re using, I’ve specified thin-cut rump because it cooks quickly and it’s more affordable than fillet for example, but fillet would work beautifully or you can choose a cut of your choice. If the steak has a lot of chunky fat on the side or running through, you’ll want to remove that. Don’t worry if it means dividing it into smaller pieces – you’re going to slice it later anyway so it’s fine.
This recipe does involve a bit of juggling and multi-tasking, but don’t let that intimidate you. At any time you can turn off a burner or switch up the tasks to suit you, but it’s super easy to make the steak, sauce and gnocchi at the same time with a little concentration and patience. If something gets out of hand, you can always re-heat the gnocchi or the sauce, so don’t stress. It’s pretty hard to mess this up aside from overcooking the steak, but if that happens (and hopefully it won’t) it will still taste good and you’ll learn better for next time. Let’s get started!
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 25g unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon green peppercorns (or peppercorns of your choice)
- 1 tablespoon of brandy
- 100ml double cream
- 200ml strong beef stock
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
For the steak & chips
- 2 tablespoons garlic olive oil or regular olive oil
- 1 thin-cut rump steak, large bits of fat removed (2 steaks if cooking for 2 people)
- Sea salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper
- 200g gnocchi (400g if cooking for two people)
- A few finely chopped chives to serve (optional)
Method
- Start by preparing your meat. Remove all chunky bits of fat and discard them. Salt & pepper the steak on both sides generously and set aside.
- To get started with the sauce, add the butter to a frying pan over medium heat. Once it’s melted and sizzling a bit, add the shallots and cook stirring until fragrant, translucent and soft, stirring occasionally.
- While the shallots are cooking, add the oil to a separate frying pan over medium high heat and when it’s hot, add the rump steak to the pan. Cook in a hot pan for about 4 to 5 minutes per side or until both sides are bronzed and the steak is cooked to medium-rare. Obviously thinner steaks will take less time and thicker ones will take longer, so you’ll have to use your judgement here and practice makes perfect. You might also choose to cook your steak rarer or more well-done – that’s fine too. Medium-rare is my favourite, but you cook it however you like it.
- When the steak is cooked sufficiently, remove it from the pan to a plate to rest and increase the heat to medium or medium-high. Fry the gnocchi in the fat left over in the pan until it is crisp and golden, turning occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent burning while you finish the sauce.
- Add the peppercorns to the butter and soft shallots and stir to combine before pouring in the brandy. Allow the brandy to bubble and reduce a bit – this should only take a couple of minutes and it will start to look a bit thicker and more syrupy.
- Stir in the double cream, beef stock and the dijon mustard and simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. If it gets too thick at any point you can add a little water or milk. You’ll want this to be hot when you serve it without burning it or making it too thick to spoon over. Season to taste with salt & pepper as desired.
- When the gnocchi is golden & crispy, it’s time to serve. Start by slicing the steak. Pour any of the juices from the plate into the sauce and stir it in for a little more flavour. Plate the gnocchi and lay the steak pieces over top. Finish by pouring or spooning the peppercorn sauce across everything and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and finely chopped chives if you’re using them.
