Serves 4
To make pepper steaks that aren’t going to make you cough, tip the crushed peppercorns into a sieve and give them a good shake. This will sift out the really hot, peppery dust, leaving you with just aromatic black crumbs.
150g Brussels sprouts, trimmed
3 medium potatoes, peeled
2 large carrots, peeled
2 large parsnips, peeled
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Handful of thyme sprigs, leaves picked
40g black peppercorns
4 x 250g boneless rib-eye steaks, about 3cm thick, trimmed
2 tbsp olive oil
Knob of butter
For the sauce
100ml brandy
100ml beef stock
Few knobs of butter
100ml crème fraîche
Handful of herbs, such as chives, tarragon, chervil, parsley, chopped
1 Preheat the oven to its lowest temperature. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Tip the Brussels sprouts into the water and return to the boil. Cook for 2 minutes, then drain and plunge into ice-cold water. Cut the potatoes, carrots and parsnips into 2cm dice. Heat the olive oil in a large saut? pan and fry the diced vegetables with some seasoning and half of the thyme for about 10 minutes until just tender and lightly golden. Tip the saut?ed vegetables into an ovenproof dish and keep warm, uncovered, in the oven.
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2 Crush the peppercorns, then sieve them over a plate to remove the spicy dust. Season the steaks all over with salt, then press both sides into the crushed peppercorns. Sear the steaks in a really hot pan in the oil for about 3 minutes on each side, adding a knob of butter to finish off the cooking. For medium-rare beef, the meat should be slightly springy when pressed. Rest the steaks on a warmed plate for 10 minutes.
3 While the meat is resting, make the sauce. Tip out the excess fat from the pan you fried the steaks in. Pour in the brandy and flamb? to burn off the alcohol, shaking the pan until the flame subsides. Stir in the stock and boil until reduced by half.
4 While the sauce is reducing, finish preparing the sprouts. Heat the butter in the same pan used for the diced vegetables. Drain the sprouts, dry them in a clean tea towel or with kitchen paper, then tip into the pan with some seasoning and the remaining thyme. Toss well to coat and heat through until tender. Transfer the sprouts to a sieve to drain off the excess fat.
5 Pour any juices from the resting steaks into the sauce. Turn the heat down, stir in the crème fraîche and cook until the sauce has thickened. Check for seasoning, then stir in the herbs. To serve, you can thickly slice or keep the steaks whole, then arrange them in the middle of four warmed plates. Pour the sauce over and around the meat, then scatter around the diced vegetables and Brussels sprouts. Serve at once.