42: Coffee Steak (Page 137, Piri Piri Starfish)

Boy do those chips look fat or what! I borrowed Piri piri startfish by Tessa Kiros a few months ago and this was one of the few recipes that appealed to me. All the recipes in this book are from Portugal, and when you read the recipes they all sound very exotic. I finally decided to try this recipe because Liz sent me a youtube link for coffee steak, which I will attempt to make tomorrow. The difference between the recipes is this one uses espresso as a sauce while the other recipe uses ground coffee as a dry spice.

Today it reached 33 degrees in Brissie. This would have been a nice meal to eat outdoors with family and friends. Although they'd better like coffee. The recipe said to add 1 tbsp cream and about 2 1/2 tbsp of strong espresso coffee. I'm no coffee expert/snob - if it has caffeine then hit me with it. So I put 2 1/2 tbsp into about 1/4 cup of boiling water and used that to make the sauce and since I had no idea what type of cream to use I left that out. The coffee might have been a bit strong, but that's how I like my coffee. Apparently this is a very common dish in Lisbon. So I will have to go there some day so I can figure out if the sauce was supposed to be strong and bitter or if the cream was supposed to add some sweetness to it. Although I made this very much to my taste, I think the amount of coffee will depend on the individual. I have included the recipe, just in case anyone is interested in making figuring out how they like their coffee with their steak.

1. Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in frying pan. When it starts to fizzle add 1 fillet steak (150g) and cook until golden. Turn over and sprinkle with some salt. Cook until steak is done to your liking. Turn steak over again sprinkle with salt. Add 2 bay leaves and 2 cloves of garlic to flavour the sauce. Lift steak out onto a plate.

2. Add the 1 tbsp cream and 2 1/2 tbsp espresso to the pan and let it bubble up and thicken for a few seconds. Turn off the heat and return the steak to the pan, then leave for a minute to let the juices mingle. Grind some black pepper over the top once it's on the plate. Serve with chips.

And for dessert? Passionfruit banana pineapple and cream Weis bar. Yummo!