Steak!

My partner is away (at her mother’s) and we’ve got builders in (rather like an infestation of fleas, I think – no respect for people or property), so I was on my own for dining.

Lazily, I just defaulted to one of my favourite meals: steak & chips (sort of). I like the flavour of rump steak, even though most seem to think it’s inferior to sirloin. The trick, of course, is in the cooking. If you’ve never seen Heston Blumenthal cook a steak, then you should! Grills at home are NEVER hot enough to do what a restaurant can, so the frying pan is the answer. The steak should be lightly oiled and seasoned and the pan HOT. Sling the steak in and turn it every 30 seconds until it’s cooked to your liking (or just a little less, really).Throw in a knob of butter at the end to enhance the outside. Then – CRUCIALLY – leave it to rest for 10 -15 minutes. This makes all the difference.

I served the steak with new potato wedges and mushrooms cooked with shallots and finished with crème fraiche and Dijon mustard. Not a bad meal at (relatively) low cost and only about 20 minutes work.