Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
This is a classic French dish for which French fries were invented. Serve it with a salad and a bottle of red wine. For more color, mix equal portions of red, green and black peppercorns.
- Pat the steaks dry and sprinkle with salt on both sides.
- Grind the four tablespoons of black peppercorns in a pepper mill. If you don’t have a pepper mill, you can use a mortar and pestle or the side of a chef’s knife to crush them.
- Spread the ground pepper on wax paper or a plate and press the steak into the pepper on both sides pressing with your fingertips to make sure the pepper sticks stick.
- Set a large, heavy skillet (cast iron works best) over medium-high heat.
- When the pan is hot, add just enough olive oil to make a light film.
- Wait a few seconds until the oil is very hot, and then add the steaks, cooking until nicely browned, about 60-90 seconds on a side. Don’t crowd the steaks or they will steam and not brown nicely. Do them in batches if the pan is too small to do them all at once.
- Remove them and keep them warm in a 200°F oven.
- Add the shallots or onions to the pan and sauté for two or three minutes.
- Add the wine and the beef broth and cook until it's reduced to ½ cup or so, which should take five to seven minutes. Scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon as the wine is cooking.
- Add the steaks to the broth mixture and simmer for 4-6 minutes depending on how well done you want them. Watch them closely if you're cooking with grass fed steaks since they require 30% less cooking time due to their lack of fat.
- Plate the steaks. Whisk in the butter a slice at a time to the remaining sauce and and continue stirring until all the butter is melted.
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Drizzle the sauce over the steaks, and serve immediately with more sauce on the side.
The Extra Touch: Stir in two tablespoons of heavy cream at the very end, just before drizzling the sauce over the steaks. Do not allow the sauce to boil.