Chateaubriand with Pepper Sauce

We decided to have a date night in on Saturday night, and popped to Morrison's for a steak. I love their meat and fish usually, but this time they really excelled themselves – the steak was one of the best we've ever had! It was meltingly tender and beautifully tasty. Heavenly.

Chateaubriand is a lot of hassle and work, but oh so worth it in the end. I would usually make a sauce with lots of cream and sherry to go with it, but as that does not fit in with the Slimming World plan, I decided to try out the Coleman's Pepper sauce. It was nice, but I could probably make my own just as easily with just as few syns. Oh well, it was nice to have one less thing to do as the whole meal was quite labour intensive. 

 

Serves 2

3 syns on Extra Easy*

* Providing you use the milk as part of your Healthy Extra A.

1 whole piece end fillet steak

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp whole black pepper

1 tsp whole coriander

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp celery powder

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tsp salt

1 pkt Coleman's Pepper Sauce

300ml skimmed milk

Grind all the spices to a fine powder using a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. Spray the fillet with Fry Light and coat with the spice powder. Use your hands to massage the spices into the meat, making sure that all exposed surfaces are covered. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours or more. 

 

Heat a pan with Fry Light until very hot. Place the whole fillet in the pan and sear on all sides. The outside is supposed to be almost burnt and crusty, so don't worry if it seems overdone at this stage. Lower the heat and fry, turning regularly (you may have to support the steak with something when cooking the end sides) for around ten minutes or so. This may seem like a long time for a steak, and of course it does depend on the thickness of the meat, but the inside will still be pink after that time. My piece was rather large, and I cooked it for around 15 minutes, and it was still rare in the middle.

Meanwhile make up the sauce according to packet instructions.

Leave to rest for a few minutes before carving in thick slices and serve with the pepper sauce, potatoes and vegetables of your choice.