RECIPE: Steak and Chips

I eat out a lot but believe it or not I do enjoy cooking at home, especially if it's something quick and tasty. One of my favourite Friday night meals is steak and home made chips with some roasted veg thrown in for good measure.

I was very kindly sent some letterbox steak from the Marvellous Meat Company who provide excellent quality West Sussex beef, delivered to your door for supermarket prices. An excellent concept I think. One letterbox portion contains 3 steaks which meant we were able to have some excellent steak sandwiched the next day with the extra one, my favourite!

For a generous two person dinner I use:

2 steaks (sirloin or rump)

2 large potatoes

Vine tomatoes

1 pointed red pepper sliced in half

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to season

Cayenne pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Steak should always be cooked at room temperature, make sure you season well with salt and pepper and rub in a little olive oil to make sure they don't stick to the saucepan.

In a baking tray / roasting tray place the vine tomatoes at one side and add 2 cloves of garlic in each sliced pepper on the other side. Make sure everything is seasoned well and drizzle with a little oil. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes to enhance their sweetness.

Chop your raw potatoes into chip shapes and keep the skin on. Par boil for around 5-10mins (chips should still be a little al dente) and drain. With the potatoes still in the pan season well, add a little oil and a generous serving of cayenne pepper. Give them a good shake so the oil and seasoning is equally distributed and the potatoes have a slight broken up appearance. Pour onto a baking tray and with the veg add to a pre heated oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes or until the chips are crispy.

I fry some onions in the same saucepan at the steak as it gives them an added flavour and means less washing up. The onions were actually for our steak sandwiched the following day but you could of course have them with dinner if you desire.

Depending on how you like your steak will determine cooking time. I like my steak RARE so I don't cook mine for long. Before frying the steak make sure the sauce pan is on a HIGH heat, the higher the better. Once hot enough add the steak, if you like it rare like me 30-60 seconds on each side is sufficient depending on the thickness. Don't press on the steak whilst it cooks as this will cause the inside to dry thus detracting from the succulent flavour.

It is very important to leave a steak to rest for a couple of minutes after cooking in order to release the juices thus allowing for a tastier meat.

It's a simple meal but you can't complain that it isn't tasty. The steak I used was delicious, you could tell from just looking at them that the quality was excellent and for pretty much the same price as a standard supermarket they are a fantastic way to support local farmers when buying meat.

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