Steak au poivre

I'm not sure how appetizing this photo is. I can tell you that the steak was delicious, perfectly rare inside, and that the sauce was equally as good. We used a piece of faux filet (called sirloin in the USA). It was quite big and we knew that there would be leftovers. First, the steak is covered in freshly ground black peppercorns and left to "marinate" for a while before cooking. I used a mortar and pestle for a coarse grind.

The steak weighed 675 grams (about 1.5 lbs.) before cooking. We ate half on Wednesday and finished the rest for lunch on Thursday.

Taken with the Pixel 6.

When it's time, the steak is seared on both sides and cooked to "rare." While the steak rests out of the sauté pan, the pan is de-glazed with cognac, armagnac, or another similar brandy. We used calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy. Cream gets mixed in at this point. We poured the sauce over the steak in its serving dish and set it in a warming oven while the fries cooked. It could also go right back into the sauté pan with the sauce and kept warm over low heat.

We cut the steak at the table and spooned additional sauce over it and on the fries. It's a rather rich dish, with a little heat from the peppercorns. Pre-ground pepper wouldn't be as good, IMHO. This dish can also be made from rumsteak (top round) or tournedos style, cut from the filet (what we call "filet mignon" or tenderloin in the USA), depending on what you like and how much you're willing to spend.