Nothing beats steak and chips. Or does it? Theres only one way to find out! Instead of chips, I served this magnificent piece of sirloin steak with red onion fritters and blue cheese-stuffed mushrooms Portobellos. They start off as big buggers but then shrink dramatically after 20 minutes in the oven.
Serves 2
2 sirloin steak, outer layer of fat trimmed off
2 red onions, sliced into rounds
Small bottle of lager (I used Kronenbourg)
200g gram flour
4 Portobello mushrooms (though 6 would probably have been better)
20g softened butter
100g blue cheese (Stilton, Cashel Blue, Blue Brie, Gorgonzola, Dolcelatte, Roquefort anything you fancy)
250ml sunflower or vegetable oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Put the gram flour in a bowl and make a batter by whisking the beer into the flour. It should be the consistency of wallpaper paste. If its too thin, add more flour; too thick more beer.
2. Add the onion slices to the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until the onions are thoroughly coated.
3. Add the oil to a large frying pan and heat until the oil starts to shimmer. Test it with a little of the batter mixture it should sizzle. Add clumps of the onion/batter combo to the oil in batches. Fry for around 5 mins, until golden on both sides, taking care not to burn them. Remove from the oil and place on kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and finely chop. Mix with the softened butter and put a blog at the centre of each mushroom, where the stalks used to be. Bake in the oven for 20 mins.
4. Add a couple of chunks of cheese to each mushroom. Turn the oven to grill setting and grill the mushrooms for 2-3 mins until the cheese has melted.
5. Heat a cast iron pan until it is very hot. Oil the steaks and season with salt. Cook the steaks according to how you like them medium-rare is a couple of mins each side, but flip them every 15 secs to maximise both the colour and the internal temperature.
6. Serve the steak with the onion fritters and cheesy mushrooms with strong English mustard.
