Steak with roasted sweet potatoes

I like steak. There was a time when I ate steak 3-4 times a week. Not anymore though. It's more of a weekend ritual now. Steak with potatoes and veg. When I want to be a proper fat bastard, I'll top the steak with a fried egg! It's the perfect meal to sort your life out after a couple of days of abusing your body. It's quick to cook, versatile and bloody deliciously - literally. And besides I am off to India for a bit next week and need to get my fix of cow while I can.

When I am feeling rich, I'll go for the sirloin, but mostly it's rump. Good enough I think. I'll normally cook it quite simply, with some pepper and a few herbs. But if you want to take  some time on it you can leave it to marinade, in balsamic, garlic, juniper berries, red wine, rosemary, oregano, mixed pepper corns, in anything you fancy with beef.



Sunday supper

The rump steak was rubbed with olive oil, crushed black pepper, fresh rosemary and a little bit of oregano and set aside. No salt.

The sweet potatoes were cut into chunky wedges, rubbed with garlic infused Olive oil, chopped rosemary, loads of pepper, and salt. 1 large quartered onion for company and the tray was put in the oven for about 40 minutes. Do this first, it takes the longest. I was peeling the sweet potatoes when a certain Dr. Green told me off. Tell you what, leave the skins on. They are good cooked. The french beans and carrots were boiled.

To cook the steak,  heat some oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan. When it starts smoking put the steak in. I season it at this stage. Turn the steak just once. When you have cooked quite a few like I have, you get a sense of how well its done just by sight. You can also tell by touch. You don't want to cut it to see if it's done - this will let all the juices out. Letting the steak rest is very important. Get it out of the pan and leave on the plate for 3-4 minutes.

While my steaks rested, I deglased the the pan with some red wine and cooked the mushrooms in the juices.

Chefs differ a great deal on how they cook steaks. Some say that oiling the pan is an absolute no no - the steaks should be oiled. While others don't see a problem with oil in the pan. The are all wrong! In my experience is depends on the pan. You could get away with not oiling the pan at all if it is a non-stick or a griddle. If it's a stainless steel one, like the one I used, you'll probably have to add oil to the pan in addition to oiling the steaks. Steel pans don't come up to temperature very well. And obviously, if you are using a grill, then brushing oil onto the steaks is what you do. Now you know.