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A thick seared steak hache with creamy peppercorn sauce, confit garlic, shoestring fries, and toasted brioche
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Steak haché with peppercorn sauce

Coarsely chopped beef is seared and butter-basted like steak, then served with three-peppercorn brandy cream, confit garlic, shoestring fries, and beef-fat brioche.

Prep50 min
Cook45 min
Rest30 min
Servings4
Cook mode

Adapted for the home kitchen from Fallow's steak haché with peppercorn sauce

Ingredients

Written for a 30 cm pan

Units
Servings
4

Steak haché

  • 800 g picanha or 20%-fat ground beef, hand-chopped if using whole muscle
  • 8 g fine salt
  • 3 g black pepper
  • 45 g unsalted butter
  • 6 g fresh thyme

Confit garlic and brioche

  • 100 g rendered beef fat
  • 12 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 4 thick brioche slices

Shoestring fries

  • 600 g floury potatoes, cut into 2 mm matchsticks
  • 1 1/2 L neutral frying oil

Three-peppercorn sauce

  • 2 shallots, finely diced
  • 12 g black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
  • 6 g white peppercorns, coarsely crushed
  • 6 g pink peppercorns, coarsely crushed
  • 60 ml brandy
  • 300 ml beef stock
  • 200 ml double cream
  • 15 g Dijon mustard
  • 10 ml sherry vinegar
  • 30 g cold unsalted butter

Method

  1. Work salt and pepper gently through the chopped beef until just cohesive. Shape four 200 g patties about 3 cm thick and chill 30 minutes.
  2. Melt beef fat over low heat. Add unpeeled garlic and cook very gently 25 to 35 minutes until completely soft. Remove garlic; reserve the flavoured fat.
  3. Rinse shoestring potatoes in cold water until clear, then dry extremely well. Fry at 170°C in small batches for 3 to 4 minutes until crisp. Drain and salt.
  4. Heat a skillet until hot. Sear cold patties 3 minutes without moving; turn and sear 3 minutes. Lower heat, add butter and thyme, and baste until the centre reaches 71°C. Rest 5 minutes.
  5. Pour off most fat. Cook shallots 2 minutes, add crushed peppercorns, then brandy and reduce almost dry. Add stock and reduce by half; add cream and simmer until coating.
  6. Stir in Dijon and vinegar. Off the heat whisk in cold butter and season.
  7. Toast brioche in reserved garlic-beef fat. Serve each haché with sauce, squeezed confit garlic, shoestring fries, and brioche.

Notes

  • Fallow demonstrates a pink centre around 60°C. Because chopping distributes surface bacteria, this home version follows the conservative 71°C ground-beef target.
  • For alcohol-free sauce, replace brandy with 45 ml stock plus 15 ml apple juice; reduce, then proceed.
  • Do not fill the frying pot more than halfway and make sure the potatoes are completely dry.

Sources used

Good with

Sources consulted

Fallow demonstrates the dish without quantities and serves the centre pink; this adaptation reconstructs the amounts and uses the conservative 71°C home target for chopped beef.

From Christoph Mayer

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