Happy New Year - Eat This Steak!

Hello to all and welcome back. I didn't really have the time to say too much after our last post as the holiday season was somewhat of a whirlwind split between here in Portsmouth, Paris and London. We bid farewell to my best friend Jeff a few days ago and have been sleeping off a very busy and fun holiday season since.

Well, yesterday I finally got up the physical strength to cook something (aside from a few pizzas over the last few days) and, WOW, what a comeback.

This is the first time I have poached steak before and I cannot tell you how wonderful it was. The key is that the meat turned out an absolute uniform rare doneness throughout the entire piece of meat. Our good friends Dave and Karena got us a book on 'sous vide' cooking which involves cooking something in a vacuum sealed bag over a constant temp for many hours. I get the feeling that this is a small glimpse of what some of those meats are going to be like when I get around to purchasing some equipment.

Anyhow, back to the dish...

Yum. The snails are a MUST here, and if you haven't tried them, you need to try them immediately. If you have any reservations about trying them, you're an idiot. Just ask my friend Jeff who had them for the first time in Paris last week and now can't stop thinking about them. They haunt him. He is now condemned to walk the earth, forever in search of his next escargot fix.

Poached Fillet of Welsh Black Beef with Sauteed Snails and Asparagus on Cauliflower Puree

24 spears of young asparagus
1 liter beef consomme or beef stock
olive oil
4x250 g fillet steaks, preferably Welsh Black beef
knob of unsalted butter
salt and pepper

CAULIFLOWER PUREE
1 large white onion, sliced
50 g unsalted butter
1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, trimmed and chopped
250 ml full-fat milk

SNAILS
20 ready prepared snails (see note below)
knob of unsalted butter
100 g fresh wild garlic leaves, or 1 wild garlic root, chopped, or 1 garlic clove, chopped
25 g finely chopped shallots
leaves ripped from a few sprigs of thyme
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

First make the cauliflower puree. Sweat the onion in half the butter until soft. Add the cauliflower and stir briefly, then cover the pan and cook gently for 20-25 minutes or until the cauliflower is soft but not brown. Add the milk and bring back to the boil. Puree in a food processor with the remaining butter, which should be cold. Push the puree through a fine sieve into a bowl. Check the consistency - it should just hold its shape. If it is too stiff, let it down with a little milk. Set aside in a warm place.

Plunge the asparagus spears into a pan of boiling salted water and blanch for 1-2 minutes. then drain and refresh in iced water. Drain again and set aside.

Bring the consomme to a gentle simmer in a wide pan. Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a large heavy frying pan until very hot, and sear the steaks over a high heat until nicely coloured on all sides. Transfer the steaks to the consonune, reserving the meat juices in the frying pan. Simmer gently for 8 minutes for rare beef. Do not let the liquid boil. Remove the steaks from the consomme and let rest for 5 minutes.

While the steaks are resting, add a ladleful of the consomme and a knob ofbutter to the meat juices in the fiyingpan and simmer until reduced. At the same time, saute the snails in a knob of butter in another frying pan with the garlic leaves, shallots and thyme leaves. Throw in the blanched asparagus spears and parsley, and season to taste. Reheat the cauliflower puree, if necessary.

To serve, spoon some cauliflower puree onto each plate and place a steak on top. Garnish with snails, garlic and asparagus, and drizzle over the reduced sauce.