Recipe: Ultimate Steak Night

Tom McNeeney, Head Chef of The Oxford Pub, Rochdale, shares his tips for a top steak night...

Chef Tom McNeeney

Well, now summer has completely gone we all need something to brighten up our evenings and there isn’t much better to look forward to after a long week than a proper steak night! So here’s a few little tweaks you can use to make the fanciest of dinners that little bit more indulgent!

THE STEAK:

There isn’t a right way or a wrong way when it comes to steak; some people get a bit uppity about people who like theirs well done, others grimace at the thought of a blue steak. All I think is that if you’ve bought it, do what you want with it. But here’s a few tips that I think will help:

Whatever steak you choose, ribeye, rump, sirloin, fillet or some outrageous, bone in caveman number, always cook it from room temperature. Season on every side with sea salt and black pepper and a little olive oil.

Make sure your pan is good and hot when you place your steak into it, you want to hear it sizzle!

Now the trick is to not faff with it, three minutes on each side of an inch thick steak will give you a lovely medium rare steak, about five and a half minutes a side for medium, seven minutes each for medium-well and a cool ten minutes for you well done steak lovers.

Once It’s been flipped, throw a few knobs of butter into the pan, some garlic cloves and a sprig of thyme and baste that steak! Yes it’s excessive but you’ll thank me for it!

Now, most importantly, you have to take that steak out of the pan, put it onto a warm plate and rest it for at least five minutes. And what you are left with should be, quite possibly, the perfect steak.

THE TOMATO:

Preheat your oven to a happy 180ºc, throw a few toothpicks into some water to soak and then tinfoil a baking tray.

For each person get yourself a nice, whole tomato (beef tomatoes are fantastic but are almost a meal in themselves). Here I’ve used plum tomatoes.

Slice the top off the tomato and a little off the bottom to stop it wobbling around.

Then wrap a slice or two of good, streaky smoked bacon around each tomato and using the toothpicks (soaking them in water will mean they don’t burn so badly) pin the bacon in place, two should do it.

Now sit your voodoo tomatoes onto the tray, season well with black pepper, a little salt and some thyme and pop into the oven for about 20 minutes.

THE CHIPS:

Now, if you're feeling really indulgent, few things really hit the spot like chips lashed in truffle oil and parmesan. If you want to use oven chips for this no one is going to blame you, just cook them as you normally would then skip to the last step.

If you're making your own, get a steep sided pan of good, clean oil or if this is the only meal you're going to eat this month you can use beef dripping.

Get your hands on some good potatoes, you want one and a half decent size ones per person, something like a maris piper would be great.

Cut them into chunky chips and soak them in some salted water for ten minutes.

Heat your oil to around 160ºc, drain the water from the chips and pat dry with a tea towel before plunging them into the hot oil with extreme caution, you don’t want to overcrowd the pan, so do this in several smaller batches if there’s a lot to get through.

Now pull them out and place on a kitchen roll lined tray for half an hour or so, turn the heat up to a dangerous 190ºc and pop them back in for about four minutes until brown and incredibly crispy.

Using a long slotted spoon pull the chips out and place into a large bowl, drizzle over some truffle oil, some grated parmesan, a little sea salt and some fresh thyme leaves, give everything a toss and repeat so all your chips are good and coated.

Try not to eat too many while your steak is resting.

THE WINE:

When it comes to wine I know enough to get by; red wine is warm, white wine is cold, if you want to drink prosecco before lunchtime put orange juice in it, the usual.

But what my mate Andy Hoyle (@manchesterwineman) doesn’t know about wine isn’t worth knowing. He’s got a couple of opinions on what would go best when it comes to picking wines for your steak night.

Andy suggests for leaner cuts to use lighter reds, Beaujolais or an Australian Pinot Noir would be a fine shout.

A fattier steak would help soften the tannins in a really punchy red like a Cabernet Sauvignon.

The old idea that white is for fish and red is for meat can get in the bin; Andy thinks the oaky, smokey notes of an American Chardonnay or a well aged Resiling from Alsace could go toe to toe with any steak.

Or as with most situations you can’t go wrong with a good brut champagne!

Cheers!