- 14 hours ago
Learn how to make steak au poivre with frites with Chef Alexia Duchêne. This classic French bistro dish is a fundamental of French cuisine, pairing a perfectly seared steak with a rich, creamy peppercorn sauce and crisp fries. Master essential techniques like building a pan sauce, cooking a juicy, flavorful steak, and double-frying potatoes for golden, crispy fries so you can deliver restaurant-quality results at home.
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00:00Steak au poivre and frites is probably the dish
00:02that you see in every single bistro in Paris.
00:05It's a dish that is extremely dear to my heart.
00:09I love it.
00:10I'm going to wash the potatoes
00:11and then cut them in pieces and blanch them.
00:14French fries, also known as frites in French.
00:17I think technically they're not even French.
00:19They're from Belgium.
00:20But anyway, we'll take the credits.
00:22We have the potatoes.
00:24We're in America, we've got the russets.
00:26What you're looking for really is some,
00:27like a type of potato that's really high in starch.
00:30This is what creates this little fluff
00:32in the exterior after blanching
00:34that when it'll fry has these little micro nooks
00:37that will literally get super crispy.
00:40Why I like these potatoes, they're quite long,
00:42which is what you want to have a really nice long fry.
00:45I do not peel them just because I think
00:47that the skin is delicious.
00:51The idea is to cut the potatoes.
00:54I like to do it by hand also.
00:55I feel like you really get to adapt
00:59to the size of the potato.
01:01What you want is a big knife.
01:04You just cut the base
01:05and then you have something super steady.
01:07So you want to be quite precise in terms of thickness.
01:14I'm looking for something,
01:16you see, like a bit smaller than the thumb.
01:22Bâtonnet is what we call them.
01:24Bâtonnet means literally like a stick.
01:26If you start having different sizes,
01:28you're going to get something that's very uneven
01:30and some fries are going to be way overcooked
01:32and some are going to be still a bit raw in the center.
01:35I'm just going to fill this bowl with water.
01:39This is why you're rinsing it.
01:41You're taking the starch out of the exterior.
01:44So the idea is to start by blanching them in salted water
01:47and then finishing them twice in oil
01:52that has different temperatures
01:53to really get that perfectly crispy fry.
01:56I'm just going to let it under running water,
02:00just to make sure all the starch is out.
02:04Once the water is completely clear,
02:06a bit like rice, you're good to go.
02:09So I have hot water.
02:11We're going to put it up to boil.
02:15Salt, heavily but not too much.
02:18And then once it boils,
02:21we'll cook them for roughly four minutes.
02:24The first step is really just to cook the potato through.
02:28If the potatoes don't have space to kind of steam out by themselves,
02:31they're going to overcook just because they're on top of one another
02:34and that they go straight in the fridge.
02:38The fries are in the fridge.
02:41Now it's time to start working on the sauce au poivre.
02:43The idea is to dice very thinly those shallots
02:46and saute them.
02:47And it adds really, first of all, texture, taste,
02:50and overall just this nice like umami balance.
02:54There are many different ways to like dice shallots.
02:57I like this very old school way.
02:58You kind of like have this layer that's quite thin.
03:03You're going to smash it.
03:07This allows you to have a perfect like julienne.
03:10Julienne is basically a very thin strip of vegetable that you cut.
03:16There are a bunch of different classic cutting techniques.
03:19brunoise is the small cube.
03:22Julienne is a long strip.
03:24And then we have paisanne which is like a bigger chunk
03:28that we'll use mostly for for sauces.
03:31This is being precise.
03:34It's like everything.
03:34You know, it's it's not that important,
03:36but it is you can do anything in life,
03:39you know, a bit roughly and it'll be fine.
03:42But being precise just brings this extra layer of love and care to any dish
03:46that can't really be explained, but definitely felt.
03:53So now I have my shallots.
03:55I'm going to work with different kinds of peppers.
03:57The first one is the green peppercorn in brine.
04:01Sousse au poire means peppercorn sauce or pepper sauce.
04:05So the green peppercorn is really here for the brine,
04:08for the aroma, for the texture, but not necessarily for the deep heat.
04:13The deep heat is going to come from the black peppercorn
04:16that is going to be on the crust of the steak.
04:19Here are the toasted black peppercorns dried, very fragrant.
04:24My favorites are Sarawak that really has this intense aroma.
04:29In French, we would say like animal, which means like animal.
04:32It has very like beastie kind of like gamey kind of smell.
04:36It's, it's delicious with steak.
04:38What you want to do is start like crushing them.
04:43You want to have texture when you're, when you're cooking the steak,
04:46but you don't want them whole.
04:48In order to get the dish together at the same time with the fries that are hot
04:53and like the sauce that is hot, the steak is perfectly tempered.
04:57It's all about organization.
04:59What you want right now is to make sure that the first oil bath is going,
05:06before you cook your steak, start heating up the oil so that they get ready for the second blanche.
05:12This is the oil I used peanut oil.
05:15I love to use it because it gives us very like crispy fry, even more so than other oils.
05:21Peanut oil has a really high smoking points.
05:23So for frying, it's ideal.
05:25I filled the cast iron to like three quarters to make sure that it has like space to kind of
05:30bubble.
05:30For the first fry, so we're around 150 to 160 degrees Celsius.
05:35And the second fry, we're aiming something between 175 to 180 to 183.
05:41So right now I have my steaks.
05:43I got different cuts just because I think it's interesting to see what people in general use.
05:50So this is a fillet.
05:51This is what most restaurants in Paris used to do steak au poivre.
05:54The fillet for me is a bit boring because yes, it's tender.
05:58So the sauce kind of takes a big part of the show in the dish, but it's not very interesting
06:06in texture.
06:07I think pieces of meat where there is a bigger fat ratio bring a nicer crust and just more flavor.
06:14In the end, it kind of helps the sauce go to another dimension.
06:18Here, I got a Denver steak that I discovered when I moved here in New York.
06:24What I love about this piece of beef is just how well balanced it is when it's cooked.
06:30The marbling, the toughness in a way is a good thing.
06:33You know, you want meat to kind of not just melt in your mouth,
06:36but also have this kind of chew because it's interesting.
06:39It brings contrast with the sauce that's extremely creamy and heavy.
06:42And for me, that's the greatest piece of meat for steak au poivre.
06:47Roll the steak, a bit of the pepper.
06:51Really give that crust a bit of salt.
06:55It's a lot of peppercorn, but I kind of spread it in different ways
06:58so that you're not eating a big chunk all at once.
07:02The steak on the side is going to rest for a bit,
07:04just for me to get time to just blanch the potatoes again.
07:08The goal is really to touch the fry and not feel any sort of moisture.
07:12You don't want like wet fries.
07:14They should be dry and cold.
07:17The oil is now at 150 degrees Celsius,
07:19which is the perfect temperature for the first fry.
07:24It's going to roughly take five minutes.
07:26And then for the last fry, it's going to be a bit shorter,
07:29probably three, three and a half.
07:31The first fry is to create a protective layer
07:33that is not going to soak up all of the grease from the frying oil.
07:37So in France, we say pellicule in English.
07:40It's like the first layer of crispiness.
07:44See no color.
07:47And the fries don't look like much right now,
07:50but we see that they're completely cooked.
07:52I think this is a good test, kind of like breaking them apart
07:54and just trying one.
08:00I guess I'm going to fry it.
08:03While I wait for the fries to cook,
08:05I'm going to return to the steak and start my pan,
08:08getting it to high heat so that it's perfect for cooking.
08:12And the idea when you're cooking with stainless steel
08:16is really to heat the pan quite high
08:19to ensure you have a nice crust and that it doesn't stick to the pan.
08:23And at the end of the day, that's all you're looking for
08:25when you're doing steak au poivre.
08:26It's this contrast of nice crust
08:29with something that's extremely creamy and decadent
08:32that kind of balances the textures.
08:36We're going to do the water test
08:37and see if we put some water, if it evaporates,
08:40if it kind of like bubbles and stays inside the pan,
08:44then we're good to go.
08:45The pan on the side for a sec.
08:48We're going to use, we're going to use our peanut oil.
08:51You know, the idea is not to go crazy on the oil.
08:56You want enough to kind of like evenly coat the bottom of the pan,
09:01but that's pretty much it.
09:05Back here, high heat, steak goes in.
09:14I'm going to put some weights.
09:16Weights are great.
09:17You can either have like dedicated like meat weights
09:19or just like put another pan on top.
09:26This will help get a really nice crust and even cook.
09:30That's perfect.
09:32Fries are done.
09:34So now they're resting for a bit.
09:37You really want to hear the pan sizzle and kind of like toast the peppercorn.
09:44Nice.
09:46Like the black peppercorn sometimes, depending on like the varietal,
09:49when it gets toasty, it smells like, I don't know, like a cow feel or something.
09:54In a good way.
09:56We have a really nice crust right now.
09:58We're going to flip it.
10:00Beautiful.
10:01That's exactly what you want.
10:06For steaks, I like to go, say, rare.
10:09I feel like in France, that's how we eat steaks mostly.
10:12Medium rare, but nothing above that.
10:14So now we have a really nice here on both sides.
10:18There's this like hand technique to know how your steak is done.
10:22Basically, you take your hand and you take the fingers.
10:25And this is kind of like, this is rare.
10:26You know, you can feel it's quite soft.
10:28It bounces back, but it takes time.
10:30And then this is medium rare.
10:33How America likes their steak.
10:35And then you go here, medium.
10:38And this is, this is well done.
10:40This is really like, that's a hard steak, you know, just like this.
10:44It works every time.
10:45So right now I'm touching here and I'm touching here.
10:48Yeah, right now we're, we're rare.
10:51By the time it rests, we'll probably be medium rare.
10:54What you don't want to do is to rinse that pan.
10:58That pan is golden, has all the flavor.
11:00Shallots, in.
11:03The salt kind of helps it sweat.
11:09So the idea here is to really deglaze the pan with some cognac for depth, for like taste.
11:16And the idea is to kind of flambe, which is to kind of deglaze and burn the bottom.
11:22Flambe, classically French.
11:24We use it in multiple recipes, savory, sweet.
11:27It just kind of kills the alcohol, but really releases all the flavor.
11:36I'm using induction here.
11:38So obviously I can't just like tilt it and make it burn.
11:42So I'm using a match.
11:45I'm going to add my green peppercorn.
11:48Now it's time to add some beef stock.
11:50What you're looking for in beef stock, especially when you get it at the butchers,
11:54is really this like gelatinous texture that is full of collagen,
11:58which will help you build a very structured sauce.
12:02Some creme fraiche, which is from Izigny, which is in Normandy.
12:06Very dear to my heart.
12:07I go pretty heavy on the cream in this dish,
12:09just because I feel like when the sauce is quite intense,
12:12kind of overpowers with the steak.
12:15And I really like the tang of creme fraiche.
12:17So what you're looking for is really to build that sauce and to fold the creme fraiche in,
12:23in this movement that is kind of like waves.
12:27You're emulsifying.
12:31So now it's time to add demi-glace, which is basically stock
12:35that has been added to roasted bones and red wine and reduced for hours and hours,
12:42kind of nearly over a day.
12:43And this gives this like very gelatinous kind of sauce that is perfect to finish any dish.
12:51The final sauce should be kind of like a glaze.
12:54How I like to measure if the sauce is ready or not.
12:58What you're looking for is a sauce that when you do that kind of like separation,
13:02it stays straight for quite a long time.
13:06Which means like glazing the spoon.
13:10While it's reducing and my oil is warming up for the last fry of the fries,
13:17I'm just going to chop roughly a few Szechuan peppercorn.
13:23This is not conventional.
13:24It's definitely not French.
13:26But I like how it numbs the tongue a bit when you're eating it.
13:30I felt like French cuisine has also so much potential to kind of,
13:33you know, be inspired and be influenced by other cultures.
13:37I think that's the beauty of, you know, being able to travel and see things is to also
13:43mix different cuisines that maybe
13:47didn't get the chance to interact with one another in the past.
13:51So yeah, just to touch our Szechuan peppercorn like that.
13:55I'm going to add some more cognac.
13:58Having a bit of fresh cognac at the end brings like so much more complexity.
14:02The steak is rested.
14:04I'm going to put it back in the sauce.
14:06We already cooked the steak.
14:07It's ready to warm up while we fry the fries for the last batch.
14:12And my oil is ready for frying.
14:14I raised the temp to 180 for a really crispy fry.
14:19So you see, I see a lot of bubbles right now.
14:21I could go crazy and add more fries, but I think it's all about playing it safe.
14:26And just going bit by bit.
14:28The fries are cooked.
14:29So it's only about color.
14:31They're golden.
14:32I'm just going to go heavy on the salt.
14:34Make sure that there's salt everywhere.
14:38It's nice coated.
14:40The fries will be crispy for four or five minutes.
14:44If I were to wait like 10 minutes because my steak is not ready,
14:48I can always cook them and then put them like for 30 seconds again in the same oil,
14:53just to make sure you kind of like give them a second life.
14:57It's super important when you're doing a lot of this multitasking to not kind of freak out.
15:02Everything can work out and can be reheated.
15:05Like the sauce, if it sat for like an hour because you had other things to do,
15:09you can always add a touch of water.
15:11Let it reduce again.
15:12Kind of make sure it doesn't split.
15:14The fries, you can go for another fry.
15:17There's no rules.
15:20I'm just going to need a last touch of cream.
15:23It's the Normandy girl in me.
15:25One last one.
15:28Don't watch your cholesterol if you're making this recipe.
15:31Well, that's the beauty of cooking.
15:32You know, French food can feel like pretentious and very rigid,
15:36but it doesn't have to be.
15:37You know, you want to put a bit more cream, you can.
15:39If you want to put a bit less, you can also.
15:42And we're good to go.
15:43Okay.
15:44Now it's time to cut the steak.
15:49Let's check the cooking.
15:51That is exactly what I'm looking for.
15:53See like nice, rare, medium rare, hot to the touch.
15:59The idea is to put a big pile of fries on the side of the plate.
16:04It's going to soak up all the sauce.
16:07I'm going to put a bit of sauce in the bottom.
16:13Super like luscious, silky, like something that coats the plate.
16:20And the beef.
16:22And then you want to plate and see the nice cooking.
16:26You know, you have to show off a bit.
16:29This is what I want to eat right now and every day.
16:33This is French food, you know.
16:36A few ingredients, nice sauce.
16:40That's what it's about.
16:42Then the last piece is for me.
16:46It's so good.
16:47The pepper is strong, but like quite mild also because of the green pepper corn.
16:52The sauce is rich, very beefy.
16:55Great.
16:56Try it at home.
16:57You won't regret it.
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