COVER
Fillet Steak with Mushroom Sauce “Overcooking is your greatest risk when braaiing a fillet. Some people like to braai fillet steaks whole and only slice them afterwards, but I prefer to cut the fillet beforehand and braai single medallion portions. This exposes a greater surface area of the meat to the searing heat of the fire, which adds more flavour, something fillet steak needs. The steaks should be cut fairly thick in order to have a nice and juicy medium-rare inside while being completely seared and sealed on the outside. To achieve this, fillet steaks naturally need to be braaied on extremely high heat. Eating fillet steak is not a challenging or complex matter as it’s so tender and has no sinew, skin or bones. It is a very comfortable and familiar meal that I like to pair with mushroom sauce. With mushroom sauce you can go to town, but I like an honest, dependable, classic, no-nonsense mushroom sauce with fillet steak. It is as easy to make as it is to braai fillet medallions and it’s as familiar and comfortable to eat as the steak we’re serving it with.”
WHAT YOU NEED 1 kg piece of fillet steak salt and pepper FOR THE SAUCE 1 onion 1 punnet mushrooms (250 g) 1 tot butter 1 tsp salt 1 tub cream cheese 1 cup fresh cream 1 tot soy sauce 1 tsp black pepper 2 sprigs fresh thyme
Make a very big fire. Bigger is in fact better.
off, and if they don’t, then don’t worry, this will happen later.
Take the steak out of the fridge 30 minutes before the braai so that it can come to room temp. Remove the steak from its packaging, wash it under cold running water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Now use a sharp knife and cut the fillet into four equal portions, which on a 1 kg steak should mean fillet medallions of around 5 cm thick. A fillet medallion works well in the region of 200–300 g, so if the whole piece of fillet you’ve bought is much bigger than 1 kg, make more medallions. Add salt and pepper onto all sides of each steak.
Add the cream cheese, cream, soy sauce, pepper and sprigs of thyme. Mix well and let this simmer until the sauce is thickened to your liking. Taste and add extra salt and pepper if needed. Set aside, and reheat the sauce just before serving.
Make the sauce: Chop the onion and mushrooms. Add the butter, onion, mushrooms and salt to a pan and fry until the onions are golden. If the mushrooms release their water during this time, let it cook
FEEDS
4
Braai the steaks over extremely hot coals for 8–10 minutes, making sure that all sides of each steak face the coals for at least 1 minute at a time. A 5-cm-thick fillet steak will have at least four but possibly six sides. Remove from the fire and serve with the mushroom sauce. This can be done in a number of ways, but for me a quite sensible direction to take is to pack the medallions into the pan with the mushroom sauce as it looks good and saves on washing another platter.