
45 min
Ready in
20 min
Prep time
2
Servings
Steak au poivre with red wine and cherry pan sauce on celeriac puree with watercress salad. I was told by my fiancée that we never eat steak. Not true! Well… actually maybe that’s quite accurate. So I got thinking… I’ll show her… I’ll make her the best steak dish she’s ever had!
I have to admit, it was pretty damn good. The spiciness from the peppercorns… the sweet and acidity from the sauce… the savoury silky deliciousness from the celeriac puree, with a touch of freshness from the watercress. Delicious.
Wine pairing: We ate the steak au poivre with an amazing 2015 Amarone della Valpolicella. Alternative pairings could be Bordeaux blends, California Cab Sauv’s, Rhône wines, and perhaps even a nice Pinot Noir.
Ingredients

- Steak au poivre
- 2 New York Strip Loins (on the thicker end)
- 2 tbsp green peppercorns
- 2 tbsp white peppercorns
- 1/4 cup black peppercorns
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup beef or veal demi glace
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 tbsp Cognac or Brandy
- parsley
- Celeriac puree
- 2 lbs celery root (peeled and cubed)
- 8 garlic cloves
- 1/2 medium onion
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2-3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
- Watercress
Instructions
Celeriac puree
- Peel and cube the celery root, dice the onion, peel garlic cloves and place in a saucepot.
- Pour stock into saucepot. If you need more liquid to cover the veggies, simply add water.
- Bring to boil and simmer for roughly 15 mins, or until celery root is tender.
- Drain and reserve about 1/2 cup of the stock.
- Pour 1/4 cup of the stock back into the saucepot and add the butter, adding the vegetables as well. Puree the vegetables – add salt to taste (add leftover 1/4 stock as needed for consistency of puree).
- Top with parsley (if you want).
Watercress salad
- Remove larger stalks from watercress and place into a bowl.
- Drizzle with olive oil and top with salt and pepper. Toss.
Steak au poivre
- Combine green, white, and black peppercorns in a ziplock bag and crush the peppercorns (try not to leave any peppercorns whole).
- Salt both sides of each steak and coat both sides with crushed peppercorn mix.
- Oil a pan and set to medium high. Note that the pan needs to be quite hot – you should see a little smoke start to come off of the oiled pan (but not too much as to burn the oil).
- At this point, you’ll start your pan sauce. Place dried cherries into a separate pan and pour the red wine overtop. Place on medium heat.
- Slowly set each steak in the pan away from you, so that the oil does not splash towards you. Let the steaks sear for 3-4 minutes, then flip and let sear for another 3-4 minutes to get a nice brown crust on each side (don’t pull the steak off the pan to check your sear! Let them be).
- Place the steaks on a baking rack to rest. Place them in the over to keep warm.
Pan sauce
- Pour off the oil from the steak pan and set back on burner.
- Pour the red wine and cherries into the old steak pan to deglaze.
- Reduce the wine then add demi-glace. Once the sauce has thickened a bit, pour in the heavy cream and set to medium-low heat.
- Let the sauce reduce until it thickly coats the back of a spoon.. Note that if you have reduced your sauce too much, simply just add more cream.
Plating
- Slice your steaks into roughly 8 pieces, angled.
- Spoon your celeriac puree and smear across the plate.
- Set the steak down on top of the puree.
- Set a handful of watercress next to the steak.
- Pour sauce onto the steak, puree, and salad, as your heart desires.