Pub Style Peppered Stilton Steaks With Charred Onions and Chips

Submitted by French Tart

"Thick rump or Sirloin steaks, encrusted with cracked black peppercorns, pan-fried to collect all the juices, served with a Stilton cheese & toasted walnut topping, with charred fried onions on the side............phew........AND chips (French fries)!!! Interested?! This is a dish I have eaten countless times in numerous local Pubs in the North of England - it has to be my favourite way to eat steak! You don't need anything else, apart from a mixed side salad maybe AND a pint of "real" ale to wash it down with! I have recreated this dish at home - and once you have peeled and sliced you onions and sorted out your Stilton cheese and chips, it's a doddle! I often use "oven" chips, or my Dad's Recipe #193370 which are great with this meal. Try to choose locally produced beef for your steak, and preferably organic. Just for interest, Sirloin steak was named, so the legend says, by King Henry VIII, who having enjoyed it so much, "knighted" the loin of beef on the spot, so loin of beef became SIRloin!!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 4 ounces Stilton cheese
• 1 ounce softened butter
• 3 ounces shelled walnuts, roasted and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon cracked black peppercorns
• 2 ounces butter
• 2 (8 ounce) sirloin steaks or (8 ounce) entrecote steaks
• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced into rings
• French fries, to serve

directions

1. Crumble the Stilton cheese into a mixing bowl and add the softened butter and the toasted walnut pieces, mash together well. Cover & set to one side - in a cool place.
2. Press the cracked peppercorns into both sides of the steaks, ensuring they adhere well. Cover and leave to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
3. Take 1 ounce of butter from the 2 ounces of butter, and heat it up over a very high heat in a sturdy frying pan/skillet. Add the onion rings and stir well - allow them to char at the edges before turning down the heat and cooking over a slow heat for about 10 minutes more. Set to one side.
4. 5 minutes before you want to start cooking your steaks, start to fry your chips/French fries - unless you are oven baking them, in which case you need them to be in the oven at least 45 minutes before you want to serve the steaks.
5. Heat up the remaining 1 ounce of butter in a large sturdy frying pan/skillet and as soon as the butter starts to smoke but NOT burn, add you steaks.
6. (Here is a rough cooking chart for you: For steaks about 1" thick, Rare is 3 minutes each side; Medium is 5 minutes each side and Well Done is 7 minutes each side - depending in the thickness of your steaks!).
7. As soon as you have cooked your first side, turn the steak over and crumble half of the Stilton and walnut mixture over the top of each steak, continue to cook until the steaks are cooked to your liking.
8. At the same time that you crumbled the Stilton mixture over the top, add the pre-fried onions and scatter them around in the frying pan to finish cooking them.
9. Serve the Stilton and Pepper Steaks immediately with the charred onions and Chips/French Fries.

Reviews

[zaksdad]

i made this recipe twice before reviewing it - once with a rib eye steak and once with a 10 ounce ground sirloin patty...each time, i followed the directions exactly with one exception - during the final minute of cooking the meat, i covered the pan allowing the steam to better melt the stilton butter mixture....both results were exceptional...therefore, even if you can only afford the ground sirloin, do not miss this gourmet recipe...

 

[Cook4_6]

Awesome use for my Certified Angus Beef steaks! This was fantastic. My husband does not like moldy cheese, so I invited my neighbor (who does) and his son up for dinner. He mentioned that it compared to the 'expensive' meal he had at the Market Bistro in town over the weekend. Definitely a restaurant quality meal. It will be on my 'Menus to impress' list from this point on. (I used a high quality 1" sirloin and cooked it to medium). This would also be tasty with onion straws instead of the grilled onion!

 

[Cul_de_sac_Barbie]

I love this. I grilled the steaks and put the blue cheese mixture and onions on top after removing the steaks from the grill.

 

[Mrs.Jack]

DELICIOUS! This is a far cry from the TX bbq steak but made for my British neighbors and they were thrilled! Made exactly as written w/ perfect results. Served w/ potatoes and salad. Thank you, French Tart, for a fabulous recipe! Made for the Think Pink Tag Game In Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, October 2008.

 

[Helen Hes]

This was unbelieveable! We're both expats and served this recipe to prove that British food didn't deserve the reputation that it's got. One taste of this and our guests had changed their opinion! I doubled the recipe for 4 people and this was such an easy recipe to prepare, and a great way to jazz up steak and chips. That butter was just out of this world. I had to substitute a local blue for Stilton, since Stilton is very expensive here, but apart from that I made no changes. FT, thank you for helping me to prove that British food is among the best in the world - and for proving that most of the time the simplest ingredients make the best food!