Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

3 hour class

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

Core Cooking Temperatures Chef’s notes
When cooking poultry, rolled meat joints, stews, casseroles, minced meat and meat products ensure
the centre reaches 75˚C.

Whole cuts of beef and lamb not skewered should follow these temperatures:
Rare: 40˚C
Medium rare 45˚C
Medium 56˚C
Well done 65+ ˚C

These temperatures are for the meat whilst still in the pan, or immediately after removing the meat
from the pan. The temperature will increase by a good margin after resting.

Other useful temperatures:

Fish: 40-45˚C
Scallops: 45˚C
Soft chocolate cake: 97˚C
Custard: 82˚C

Reheating and hot holding food

Reheat food to not less than 85˚C.

If you are keeping food hot after cooking, it must be kept above 63˚C and only for a maximum of 90
minutes.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

Supplier info

All meat, fish & shellfish products have been provided by Campbells Prime Meat. If you are
recreating this dish at home, we recommend sourcing top quality produce from Campbells
online shop. www.campbellsmeat.com

Campbells source their fish directly from trawlers landing at Scrabster in the North of
Scotland. They have built strong relationships with fishermen over the years to ensure their
exacting standards of quality and freshness are met, meaning you can be sure that what
you purchase is the best available from the market that day.

We are cooking with Campbells Gold Dry aged beef fillet today. We blind tested 8 different
beef products before selecting this as the best of the best. Campbells are a family business,
who pride themselves on their use of traditional butchery methods not employed by other
producers who work at their scale. They provide all of our meat, game, poultry and fish
products to our exact specification with consistency which makes us confident to
recommend them to you.

You may wish to know…

You will have used “Primadonna” extra virgin olive oil on your course today. It may surprise you to
find out it is sourced from Lidl and we rated it best all-rounder in our blind taste testing. Not to keep
great secrets to ourselves we thought you’d like to know that and take advantage of the great price
for a great product.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

Pan temperature Chef’s notes
When you’re frying it’s very important to get your pan to the right temperature. Whether you’re frying
a top piece of sirloin, a beautifully fresh piece of fish or some stonking hand-dived scallops, what
you’re trying to achieve is a nice cararamelised crust on the outside, as that’s where the essential
flavour will be. You’ll hear John, Alan and me referring to a ‘happy pan’ when we’re talking about
frying, but what are we going on about?
Well, if you’re frying a nice piece of steak and your pan isn’t hot enough, the steak won’t achieve
that all-important caramelised crust. Instead it will stick to the pan and end up stewing in its own
juices. A good way to tell if your pan is too cold is to listen; it will be making barely a sizzle. Another
way is to hold your hand over the pan; you’ll feel only a slight warmth. We call this a sad pan.
If your pan is too hot, then the oil will sizzle and spit violently, and may start to haze. Any produce
that goes in the pan will burn on the outside rather than caramelising, and the pan will be too hot to
hold your hand over. We call this an angry pan.
If you get your pan to just the right temperature, you should be able to hold your hand over the pan
and feel a radiant heat, like the dying embers of a fire. When the oil and the produce go in, they’ll
make a nice sizzling sound, and when heated like this, your pan will help you to achieve the perfect
caramelised crust on your steak. This is a happy pan.
Use olive or vegetable oil for frying as butter can’t stand the heat. Use it instead for colour and
flavour.

Mise en place
When you go to a restaurant and order risotto, you don’t expect to be left waiting while the chefs
create the dish from scratch. But risotto is a time-consuming dish that takes a great deal of attention
to prepare. So how do the professionals put it together so fast?
The secret is that the chefs aren’t in the back tracking down the recipe, chopping shallots and
swearing blue because they’ve run out of Arborio rice. They’re in the back calmly pulling out the
partially cooked rice they had in the fridge, adding the stock, pouring in the wine, cooking out the
rest of the ingredients and getting a fabulous risotto on the table for you in ten minutes flat. And
there’s no reason why you can’t copy this idea at home. All it takes is a bit of structure and, most
importantly, planning. It’s what chefs call mise en place, which means ‘everything in its place’. To a
chef it means having everything ready before you start cooking, and this includes preparing as much
as you can in advance. You can’t pull a great dinner party meal out of the ether, and if you try,
chances are you’ll end up hot, bothered and never wanting to cook again!
On today’s course you will find all of your ingredients on a mise en place tray. However for these
notes, we’re going to assume that you are cooking the dishes at home for dinner guests, and use
mise en place in the way a restaurant would approach it: having each stage prepared as far as
possible in advance. At the end of the recipes you will find a useful guide to what can be prepared in
advance, to what stage, and how to get it finished at the last minute.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

beef Chef’s notes

The best beef tends to come from native beasts, breeds like Highland, Aberdeen Angus, Shorthorn
and Galloway. Ideally, they’ll live an extensive life, eating grass, toughing it out through the winter
months, and enjoying the good husbandry of a decent and caring farmer. Maturing later than
Continental breeds, they’ll go to slaughter at around 30 months, in a small abattoir where they’re not
subject to stress (something that induces the release of adrenalin and spoils the meat). They’ll be
expertly butchered and hung for up to 28 days, allowing the meat to tenderize and develop a proper
intense flavour.

The fillet is one of the most expensive cuts of beef. It’s a very tender cut that comes from a ‘lazy’
muscle on the back, and is best cooked quickly over a high heat.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

 Scotch Sirloin of Beef Bourguignon
Serves 4 Method

Ingredients Preheat oven to 180C.

4 x 160 Scotch sirloin steaks Season the steaks with Maldon salt and mill pepper and leave
olive oil to sit while you prepare the pan.

125g small shallots Heat a frying pan until very hot, add the oil then add the
(blanched
steaks. You may need to do this in two batches if your pan isn’t
3 minutes and peeled)
300ml red wine very large. Sear until you’ve got a good crust, and don’t move
300ml chicken and beef jus them about. If you fiddle with the steaks while they’re cooking,
(see recipe) then the crust may fall off and stick to the pan. When a good
125g lardons colour has been achieved on the base, turn the steaks over and
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (peeled)
leave once more to caramelise. When cooked to your
125g button mushrooms satisfaction remove them from the pan onto a warm plate to rest.
1 bay leaf
25g butter While the steaks are resting make the sauce. Take a shallow,
wide saucepan, heat and add the olive oil. Add the lardons and
To serve
champ or mini baked cook over a medium heat for 2 minutes by which time they
potatoes should be golden brown. Lift them from the pan and set aside.
Add the butter to the pan followed by the shallots and cook to a
250g leaf spinach golden brown. Add the garlic, bay and mushrooms to the pan
olive oil
Maldon salt
and cook for two more minutes taking care not to burn the garlic.
mill pepper
arrow root (optional) Add the wine to the pan and bring to a rapid boil. Once
reduced by about two thirds add the chicken and beef jus and
return to the simmer, skimming off any scum as it forms. Allow
the sauce to reduce by almost half again then taste. If a little
lacking in flavour it can be reduced a little more. You can thicken
the sauce with the addition of a little diluted arrowroot. Keep the
sauce warm while you are dealing with the meat and spinach.

When it’s ready place the steaks into a hot oven for 2 minutes
to bring up the surface heat While the meat is warming stir fry
the spinach in a hot pan for a minute with olive oil and
seasoning. Tip onto a clean towel to absorb excess moisture.

To serve divide the spinach between 4 plates with the potatoes

to one side. Carve the steaks and set a steak on the spinach.
Add the reserved lardons to the hot sauce and arrange some of
the garnish around the steaks pour the sauce around and serve.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

 Champ
Serves 4 Method

Ingredients
Peel the potatoes, cut down into 5cm sections if needed. Pop
600g peeled rooster the potatoes into a pan, cover in cold water and add a good
potatoes pinch of salt.
60-80ml double cream
40-50g unsalted butter
5 thinly sliced spring Bring the pan to the boil then quickly reduce the heat until the
onions water is just simmering. This will need a bit of faith the first time
Maldon salt you cook potatoes this way. Although the water is simmering
mill Pepper slowly the potatoes will cook perfectly and not break up. Most
people will cook potatoes far too quickly and be halfway to soup
before they are cooked through. Once they are tender to the
knife and cooked through drain well using the pan lid.

Return to the pan and the heat for a minute to dry them out
properly, mixing with a spoonula to avoid sticking. Pass the
potatoes though a Moulis or ricer and ether return to the pan to
serve at once or pop them into a clean container, cool and keep
in the fridge for up to two days before re-heating.

To serve, put half of the cream into a clean pan and warm
through, add the potato and mix well with a spoonula. Slowly
begin to add the butter and more cream if needed, working it in
until it absorbs and it becomes really smooth and silky. The
potato should be steaming hot within 3-4 minutes. Add the
spring onions at the last minute, check the seasoning and serve.

N.B. The starch content of potatoes will vary according to type,

season and correct storage. The more starch in the potato the
better you mash will be. We like to use red roosters but if you
have a favourite main crop variety and it’s in season give it a go.
The exact amount of cream and butter needed will depend
upon the starch level and of course personal taste!

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

 Chicken and Beef Jus
This is our tried & tested Cook School recipe. Freeze in batches.

Makes about 1.5 – 2 litres Method

Ingredients
Pre-heat the oven to 220C.

Part 1 Trim the chicken carcasses of excess fat, place in a roasting tin
4kg raw chicken carcasses and roast in the oven until golden brown. Don’t allow them to
1 pig’s trotter, split burn or they’ll taste bitter.
4 carrots, diced
3 onions, diced
3 sticks celery, diced
Place the roasted chicken bones and the pig’s trotter in a large
1/2 head fennel, diced pan (narrow tall pans work best for stocks). Add all the
2 tbsp tomato purée vegetables from Part 1 of the ingredients - except the garlic - to
4 garlic cloves, halved the roasting tin. Roast in the oven until golden and caramelised
but don’t allow it to burn. Stir the tomato puree into the
Part 2 vegetables then return the tin to the oven and allow the mix to
3 tbsp sunflower oil
400g diced shin of beef
caramelise until the colour changes from red to brown. Remove
1 turkey thigh, boned and the tin from the oven and deglaze with about 1 litre of water. Mix
diced well, scraping the tin with a heat-proof spatula to pick up all the
3 carrots, diced caramelised pieces from the bottom.
2 celery, diced
2 onions, diced
300ml dry red wine
Add the browned vegetable mixture to the bones in the pan and
place the halved garlic cloves on top. Fill up the pan with enough
200g can Italian tomatoes, water to leave about 5cm of bones showing above the water
chopped level (these will shrink down as the stock cooks). Place over a
a small bunch of fresh thyme medium heat and bring the liquid up to a gentle simmer. Cook for
2½ hours, skimming occasionally, then strain through a colander
into a clean pan.

For Part 2, heat a large frying pan to a high heat and add the oil.
Add the meat and vegetables and brown. You may need to do
this in several batches to makes sure that everything caramelises
properly. Deglaze the pan with the red wine then add the
browned meat and veg to the pot with the liquid from Part 1.

Add the tomatoes and thyme to the pan, stir and return to a
simmer, skimming regularly to remove any scum that may
appear. Cook for another 2 hours then strain first through a
colander, then through a fine sieve or chinois. Cool quickly.

Once cool, the stock will solidify into a jelly which can be
refrigerated in covered containers for four to five days, or frozen
for up to 3 months.

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee

 White Chocolate & Raspberry Brulee
Serves 4 Method

Ingredients Place cream, milk and vanilla pod in a heavy based sauce
pan, heat slowly and bring to a gentle simmer.
550ml double cream
50ml milk Whisk egg yolk and sugar until light and fluffy; this will take a
1 vanilla pod
6 egg yolks
good 5 minutes.
50g caster sugar
120g white chocolate When the cream is up to a gentle simmer, pour half of the
cream mix on to the egg mix and whisk until well incorporated,
1 punnet of raspberries
then pour the egg and cream mix back into the saucepan with
the remaining cream. Slowly cook over a low heat until the
custard reaches 84C on a thermometer. Keep the mixture
moving all the time and scrape around the side and along base
of pan so the mix does not catch and start to scramble.

Remove from the heat and add white chocolate a little at a

time mixing well in between. Keep adding chocolate until all
of it is incorporated and melted.

Crush the raspberries into the bottom of each ramekin and

top with chocolate custard mix. Chill for 4-6 hours.

Top with icing sugar and glaze with a blow torch!

3-hour: Sirloin Steak & White Choc Brulee