Grilled Steak au Poivre
Posted by Curt McAdams on Get Your Grill On.
Yes, that’s right, grilled steak au poivre. I love steak au poivre, but it can put out smoke in the kitchen, and the flame that’s involved means you always need a handy fire extinguisher!
My wife and I had 16 friends over Saturday night for a big party, and one of the meats I wanted to fix was steak au poivre. If you’re going to be a real grill guy, you’ve always got to be ready to cook on the grill. Usually, this means either on the grate as usual, or, if you’re doing an inside dish on the grill, you just put the pan on the grate.
I combined both worlds. I got tenderloin steaks to grill. I seasoned them heavily with crushed black pepper and added some grey salt. Along with the tenderloin, though, I also had a couple of thin slices of cubed round steak that I seasoned identically.
I put the steaks on the grill, and I put the cubed steak in a pan on the grill. This allowed me to have some fond (those bits left in the bottom of the pan when you cook) to make the sauce. The sauce is simple:
- 1/3 cup cognac
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon cognac for later
Once the steaks are done in the pan (this can be done by putting the filets directly in the pan, too, which is traditionally how it’s done), I removed them. These were just being used to get fond, but I put them in the fridge for later snackage. Then I added the cognac and, using a lighter, flamed the alcohol. This is where you have to be careful. In the house, this has to be done with a fire extinguisher handy. Outside, I wasn’t as worried, but it can get out of hand.
The alcohol will flame for a while, which is fine. As the flames died down, I added the cream and stirred until the sauce coated the back of a spoon easily. I added in the last bit of cognac for flavor, then put the steaks from the grill into the sauce.
The result is a traditionally pan-seared steak with pepper cream sauce that includes the flavor of cooking with wood. It’s a great twist on a classic.
