Julia Child's Steak Au Poivre (Adapted)

Steak au poivre has got to be one of the best steak dishes. It's because succulent beef tenderloin is seared with a peppercorn crust and topped with a spoon-licking pan sauce.

Steak au poivre, a classic French-style steak, is a one of our favorite steak dishes. We think this steak dish is better than what you can get at a steakhouse. Plus, it's so simple so prepare at home. It's a perfect dish for special occasions or holidays.

It's made by coating beef tenderloin with crushed peppercorns and then searing it to create a tasty and crispy peppercorn crust. It's then topped with a pan sauce made with shallots, cognac and cream. It's absolutely delightful.

This steak au poivre recipe is adapted from Julia Child in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In Julia's recipe, her pan sauce is made with butter, shallots, cognac, and beef broth. This recipe, however, replaces the butter in the pan sauce with crème fraîche (or heavy cream) for a richer sauce.

Many steak au poivre recipes call for cream in the pan sauce, and we've come to love a creamy pan sauce. But you can try it either way (with cream or butter) to see what you prefer.

If need be, you can make substitutions to the sauce based on what you have in your kitchen. In the past, we've used red wine in place of cognac and garlic instead shallots. And since the sauce is quite forgiving, both of these substitutions were just as tasty.

But, it's hard to go wrong with this dish. We hope you love as much as we do!

Key Ingredients

Just a few notes on key ingredients:

• Beef tenderloin: Steak au poivre is often made with beef tenderloin, typically medallions. Tenderloin is perfect for this dish since it's deliciously tender in the center, while the exterior turns crispy. Julia's recipe calls for 2 pounds of beef, but we halved it to 1 pound so there is an adequate level of sauce (we love the sauce!).
• Crushed peppercorns: Julia Child's recipe calls for a combination of peppercorns like green, black or white, which are coarsely crushed. But, you can use whatever you have on hand. You can crush the peppercorns with a mallet, a mortar and pestle, or even grind with a pepper mill. Doing so creates a stronger, fresher flavor than pre-ground pepper.
• Shallots: Julia's recipe calls for minced shallots or green onion. But, you can use what onions you have on hand. We've even substituted a few cloves of minced garlic.
• Cognac: Cognac adds a deep flavor to the pan sauce. If you don't have on hand, you could use bourbon or even red wine.
• Crème fraîche: For a creamy sauce, we love using crème fraîche. However, you could also use heavy cream. In Julia's recipe, she uses 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter instead of ¼ cream as in this recipe.

How to Make

STEP 1: Crush peppercorns with a mallet (in plastic bag), a mortar and pestle, or freshly grind with a pepper mill.

STEP 2: Pre-heat oven to 400 degree F. Dry steaks by dabbing with a paper towel. Pour crushed peppercorns on a plate and push both sides of steak into peppercorns until stuck on well. Let stand for half hour or more so peppercorn can infuse into steak.

STEP 3: Heat one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of avocado oil over moderately high heat until the butter foam begins to subside. Sear each side of the steak for 2 to 3 minutes until steak is nicely browned.

STEP 4: Check the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer. If the center of the meat is not at desired temperature (we heat to 135 degrees F), then place steaks on a sheet pan with a rack and heat in oven heat until center reaches desired temperature (about 5 to 10 minutes in the oven, depending on thickness). If meat is already at desired temperature, then set aside on separate plate to rest for 5 minutes.

STEP 5: Pour the fat out of the skillet. Over medium heat, add one tablespoon butter and minced shallots and cook for a minute or so. Pour in the beef stock and boil down over high heat while occasionally stirring and scrapping bits off the bottom of pan. Add cognac and boil for a minute or two more to evaporate the alcohol.

STEP 6: Stir in crème fraîche (or heavy cream) and cook until sauce is lightly thickened, a few minutes or more.

STEP 7: Plate steaks and spoon sauce over them. Serve immediately.

Notes on Julia's Recipe

In Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia indicates, "Steak au poivre can be very good when it is not so buried in pepper..." It's important to note that you don't want to go too overboard with crushed peppercorns in this dish. If it seems a bit too much on the top of your steak, then use less.

She continues saying that dousing the steak with flaming brandy can also disguise the flavor of it. She says, "We do not care at all for flaming branding with this dish; it is too reminiscent of restaurant show-off cooking for tourists. And the alcohol taste, as it is not boiled off completely, remains in the brandy, spoiling the taste of the meat."

In her and this adapted recipe, you don't have to worry about flaming cognac when creating the pan sauce since the cognac is not poured directly into a hot pan. Instead, beef broth is first poured into the hot pan and then the cognac, so there are no flames.

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