No Double Boiler Béarnaise
How to turn a hunk of meat into a silky slab of deliciousness? Vicki Sleet spoke to two serious meatheads about the perfect fillet Béarnaise.
If you’re a meat eater, then there’s a likelihood that there’s a steak that speaks to you. It could be a spice-dusted T-bone or perhaps a steak au poivre that’s studded with shards of peppercorns. Some swear by mussel and cheese-filled Carpet Baggers, while there are the purists who say the only steak worth eating is that wonderfully classi choice – fillet Béarnaise.
Long a favourite of the old school steakhouse, for many home cooks, daunted by the process of making a good Béarnaise, it has remained in the restaurant realm. No need, says Steven Albert, owner of the oldest steakhouse in the city, the Nelson’s Eye, which sells close to a ton of steak a month. Thanks to the onset of the modern magic of blenders, he explains there’s no need to worry over a double boiler to get your sauce just right – just whack everything together and you’re good to go.
That’s one half of the perfect classic steak. The other essential is, of course, the meat. “You can always make good meat better, but you can never make bad meat good,” says Albert who, together with his cohort, master griller Tony Loubser, insist on grain-fed, wet-aged beef which is delivered to them aged for a minimum of 21 to 28 days. “When buying steak, look for beef that’s labelled Super Grade or AAA Super Grade,” is his advice. He also advocates looking out for a fair amount of marbling through the meat as it’s the fat that’ll give the steak flavour.
Loubser explains how to cook the perfect pan-fried medium-rare fillet: “Everyone thinks you need a hot pan but you need to start with your pan cold and your grill or stove plate hot,” he says. Pop a generous knob of butter into the pan and sizzle for three minutes a side and a final minute on the first side – and if you’re grilling, don’t forget to leave the door slightly ajar.
To check whether a steak is cooked properly, Loubser and Albert say the only way is to look – no fancy thermometers or convoluted touch tests. Just cut a small way into the meat and check whether it’s done to how you’d like to eat it.
Finally, place your steak onto a warmed plate and pour your whizzed Béarnaise over it, pop open your favourite Cabernet Sauvignon and you’re good to go.
No Double Boiler
Béarnaise
Makes sauce for 4-6 portions
Keeps in the fridge up to four days
1 250g block butter
9 egg yolks
2.5 t white tarragon wine vinegar (or white wine
vinegar and 1½ pinches dried tarragon)
2.5 t lemon juice
Over medium heat, melt butter.
Blitz together remaining ingredients in a blender.
Slowly add the melted butter.
Whiz until the consistency is that
of a good custard.
TIP – if your butter is too hot, your eggs may
curdle – to ‘shock’ your sauce back
to the desired consistency,
add 1 or 2 ice blocks
