It’s David Lebovitz vs the New York Times for best steak frites recipe in 2015!
First up, Monsieur David…
Finally, I was able to test drive a recipe from my beautiful, autographed cookbook that I kept on the other side of the kitchen from my cookin lab. Anyone that knows me has experienced how neat I am while cooking…. Or not.
The photography in the book is gray and gorgeous.
As is the lack of note just for me. (I’d requested a surprize note, but received nothing. Petit pauvre).
And the beautiful French staple.
The steak is pretty standard. Rub it down with salt and pepper. David also suggests chili pepper so I threw some of that on too, but didn’t find it added anything. Serenade the steaks for one to eight hours then allow them to rest 30 minutes before grilling or broiling. I broiled. Standard steak.
The frites were an interesting one as I’ve never made them at home before. Basically you take most of the peel from some potatoes, cut them into 1/3″ matchsticks, and throw them in a cold water bath for an hour. You dry them from the bath with dishtowels. Then, they are moistureized with a few tablespoons of olive oil and sea salt. Roast for 45 minutes, with a fairly vigorous amount of tossing so they don’t get too crispy. Voila! Pretty decent frites!
While the frites are doing their damn thing, I made the mustard butter to go on top of the hot steak. Not healthy, but essential per the recipe. Mix two tablespoons of butter, some mustard powder, and a squirt of Dijon mustard. Mix it up and then chill until it’s time to top the steaks.
Pop a bottle of cab and make a simple salad and voila! French bistro chez vous.
It really was quite simple and this is definitely a tasty recipe I’d go to again. So much so, that I forgot to take a photo of the finished product as I was apparently ravenous. Here’s everything in the beginning.
Oh yeah, I roasted some sprout for an extra kick of green.
Next contender, NYTimes’ best steak frites! Champion TBD!
Macarons and Mayhem 