Steak béarnaise is one of those dishes you just have to be able to make. Partly because it is easier than you think. And then because your own béarnaise and a good quality steak are often significantly better than what you get in most restaurants.

So get started with the whisk and conjure up your own béarnaise. Once you’ve made a homemade béarnaise, you’ll never go back to powder or glass!

Ingredients

Steak Fritters:

4-5 large baking potatoes
cold water
1 litre of water
1 litre of stock vinegar
oil for frying
salt

Beef:

3-4 nice steaks, preferably ribeye or entrecote

Béarnaise:

50 ml of white wine
3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
2 tbsp. finely chopped onions
1 small bunch of tarragon, the stems
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp. water
150 g butter, melted

Accessories:

steamed vegetables, or a crisp salad.

Here’s how you do it:

• Peel the potatoes and cut the potatoes into French fries.

• Put them in a bowl of cold water to cover, rinse them and change the water 5-6 times.

• Put 1 litre of water and 1 dl of vinegar in a saucepan.

• Boil the water and put the fritters in the boiling water. Cook them for 4-5 minutes, they should still be quite firm.

• Drain the water from the French fries and pat them dry. Put them in the fridge for 2 hours.

• Turn on the oven to 250 degrees, and hot air.

• Toss the fries with oil and salt and place them in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast them in a hot oven for approx. 40 minutes. Flip them all over halfway through so they are golden and crispy all over.

Steaks:

Fry the steaks in a little oil. Cook over high heat for a few minutes on each side or until golden brown. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Béarnaise:

Put white wine, vinegar, onion and tarragon stalks in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Beat the egg yolks in a saucepan with 1 tbsp. water over low heat. Add a little of the vinegar layer and beat until the egg yolks thicken a little. Take the saucepan off and on the heat so that the egg yolks don’t get too hot. Carefully pour in the melted butter, without the whey coming in (the white precipitate). Whisk until the sauce thickens and serve immediately

Serving:

Serve steaks with fries and béarnaise and add steamed vegetables or salad.

It’s probably not a completely normal October in this house when it comes to dinner pleasures, but here it has already been roast pork, roast duck and rice. While the first two were related to some work, the last one was purely for pleasure.

However, I have promised myself that I must not eat too much of the rice, and the same applies to both duck and roast pork, before Christmas Eve, because it is not fun to finally get to the big night and then find out, that Christmas food is already hanging far from your neck.

This is also the idea behind today’s recipe, which has been created in collaboration. It is intended as a light and much-needed alternative to hearty Christmas food. As previously mentioned, when I shared the recipe for my Vietnamese barbecue skewers, I and a small handful of talented fellow food bloggers have been asked to come up with our take on delicious barbecue food, which is so easy and quick that it can easily be included on the everyday table. For this kind of thing, I always use my gas grill, which has been moved to the balcony in my new home, where grilling will take place from now on with a view of the tower.

In the recipe here, I have used an ordinary beef steak, but you can also easily make it with either lamb or chicken. The marinade is great for both parties. The marinated meat is accompanied by a really nice and different fennel salad. Even if you might not be a huge fan of fennel, I think most people will love this one anyway. The acid in the salad and not least the interaction with the remaining ingredients go in and do something about it that is completely irresistible. It is also really good with a lot of other dishes.

Ingredients

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (can be omitted)
2-3 cloves of garlic
½ dl olive oil
Juice and rind of ½ organic lemon
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp flake salt
4 good Potbelly steak

Fennel salad

2 pcs. fennel
4 stalks of celery
1 small red onion
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
½ cup mint
Salt and pepper

Course of action

• Pick the leaves from the rosemary sprigs and grind them well in a mortar together with coriander seeds and garlic until you have a coarse paste. Mix it with olive oil, lemon juice and zest, pepper and salt. Turn the steaks in this and let them marinate for at least 10 minutes, but preferably longer if there is time for it.

• Grill the steaks to taste (the cooking time always depends on the thickness of the steaks and the heat of the grill).

• Serve the grilled steaks with fennel salad or other favourite side dishes.

Fennel salad:

• Halve the fennel and cut it into very thin slices. Cut celery into oblong, slanted slices. Peel the red onion, halve it and finely chop it. Coarsely chop the mint.

• Toss the fennel, celery and red onion together with olive oil, lemon juice to taste and salt and pepper. Top with mint.