Steak with All the Trimmings

Last night, Hubby had two good pieces of steak for dinner.  He had big plans of potato bake, vegetable gratin and pepper sauce.  That was until we happened to catch an episode of Jamie's Thirty Minute Meals - the one where he cooks a faux roast beef dinner in thirty minutes. Perhaps it was the wine we were drinking while we watched it, but by the end we were both inspired to give the sides a crack, to serve along with our wine.

First things first, Hubby turned the oven on to about 200 - 220 degrees Celcius.  Then, while Hubby got busy slicing carrots and onions, I peeled and sliced up two medium sized potatoes into 2cm square cubes (ish) and then popped them into a saucepan to boil.

Next the carrots got popped into another saucepan with a good big dollop of honey (in place of sugar), a bit of olive oil, tarragon, thyme and rosemary.

While the these were bubbling away, we popped a muffin tin into the oven and I got started on the batter for the yorkies.  It was simple - one cup of plain flour, one cup of milk, a good pinch of salt and an egg.  A good hard whisk til the batter was smooth and it was ready to go.

We cracked the oven open, poured olive oil into the muffin tins, then shut it up tight again.  By this point, our potatoes were pretty well ready to go, so I tipped them out of the saucepan and left them to sit in a colander for a few minutes as per Jamie's instructions.  Then they got tipped into a fry pan on full whack with some olive oil.  Quite a lot of olive oil actually - I have teeny tiny burns up my arms and wrists from being burnt by them.  Still, I persevered,  Hubby turned down the heat from me and we three in some garlic cloves, rosemary and thyme, then gave it all a good shake around.

While that was busy sizzling away, Hubby opened the oven door and we spooned the yorkie batter into the tin then shut the oven back up again.

Next step was the steak.  I had honestly thought that Hubby would handle this bit - what with how he's quite good at cooking steak, and I can only overcook them (which is criminal).  But Hubby decided it was a good opportunity to give me a crash course.  We got the pan smoking hot, poured in some olive oil and then put on the two pieces of steak.  Hubby's hot tip was, once I had put the two pieces of steak on the pan, was to then lift them and put them back down again and leave them to cook.

The whole time the steak was cooking, the potatoes got regular turns and by the time the steak was medium rare (or so I thought - turns out it was medium well) they looked like this:-

By this point, I was pretty excited.  We took the steak off the heat and let it rest, then started making the gravy in the pan the steak was in.  Lots of onion, olive oil, a tablespoon of flour, a good glass of red wine (and it was GOOD red wine) and some of the garlic from the potatoes went into the pan, along with a good lug of stock. 

Next step was to retrieve the yorkies from the oven.  They looked AWESOME in the muffin tin... but unfortunately using the Christmas-shaped muffin tin was a huge mistake - we couldn't get them out of the tin!  Hubby managed eventually, but they were a bit mangled (still tasty though).  That particular muffin tin has now gone in the bin.

This entire meal was a success, but I have to say, the potatoes were an absolute standout.  Crisp and crunchy on the outside, they were gloriously fluffy on the inside.  We've both agreed that these potatoes DEMAND to be part of our regular menu.  And to think it was all done on stove top and not in the oven!  The yorkies were great (though mangled), the gravy brilliant and the carrots sweet and delicious.  I am seriously impressed and now very seriously considering adding Jamie's Thirty Minute Meals to my book collection.