In this recipe series, we bring you recipes by Julia Toon, culinary motivator and author of the book ‘Good Eating: A Taste of Qatar’. New recipes every week,
straight from Jules of the Kitchen.
I share this weeks delicious main course recipe in preparation for two upcoming occasions next week. One being National Sports Day and of course, for many of us, Valentine’s Day. The recipe for each occasion is Steak with Roquefort Polenta. The perfect indulgent meal for those who have been either running around all day being sporty or a fabulous meal for those who need romantically spoiling with something very special to eat.
Enjoy!
Serves 4 | Preparation time: 5 minutes | Cooking time: 10 minutes or so | All stove top cooking
Steak with Roquefort Polenta
An absolutely delightful way to cook and serve fillet steaks. I recommend that the wine sauce is well reduced to a sticky consistency and well seasoned before serving. The polenta should be cheesy and of course buttery in flavour and texture.
Ingredients
4 fillet steaks
Red Grape Pan Sauce
1 tbsp oil – rapeseed
150 ml red grape juice
150 ml stock – beef or vegetable
1 tsp of blackberry jam – or blackcurrant or honey
1 tsp of cider vinegar – optional
Roquefort Polenta
125 g polenta
16 fl oz hot water
16 fl oz milk
60 g butter
150 g Roquefort cheese
Seasoning of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper – to taste
Garnish
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Instruction
Prepare steaks
Remove steaks from fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
Make Roquefort polenta
Place the water and milk together in a medium sized saucepan, bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the polenta. Return to a low heat and stir for 3 minutes or until the polenta is soft and creamy. Add the butter, half the Roquefort cheese and seasoning. Stir through all ingredients and then keep warm to onside.
Cook steaks
Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the steaks and cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until cooked to your liking. Remove from the pan, cover and leave to rest.
Make red grape pan sauce
Using the same pan, add the red grape juice, cider vinegar and stock. Raise the heat and bring to the boil and reduce the liquid by half. Add the blackberry jam, check seasoning. Keep warm.
Serve
Individually place a large spoonful of the warm polenta onto each plate. Top with either a whole steak or steak slices and the remaining Roquefort cut into cubes. Finally top all with a generous pouring of red grape pan sauce, all over the top.
JULES TIP: If unable to get fillet steaks I have made this recipe with cuts of rib eye beef – equally as delicious.
Contributed by: Julia Toon, Jules of the Kitchen
