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Food

Steak and Potato Chips Recipe

The classic meal, updated.
Steak and Potato Chips Recipe
Photo by Farideh Sadeghin

Servings: 4
Prep time: 1 hour
Total time: 2 hours

Ingredients

for the tomato chutney (makes about 2 cups):
1 pound|450 grams small ripe tomatoes (a mix is fine), halved or quartered, depending on size
⅓ cup|80ml plus 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
⅓ cup|80ml plus 2 tablespoons garnacha vinegar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
pinch of chile flakes
¾ cup|170 grams minced onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
¼ cup|50 grams granulated sugar, plus more if needed
1 lemon, juiced

for the Taleggio sauce (makes about 2 cups):
8 ounces|225 grams Taleggio, cold
½ cup|120ml heavy cream, plus more if needed
kosher salt

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for the potato chips (makes 2½ to 3 cups):
about 8 cups (2 liters) canola oil, for deep-frying
3 Yukon Gold or Kennebec potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed under cold water
kosher salt

for the marjoram-anchovy “salsa verde” (makes a hefty ½ cup):
½ to 2 garlic cloves, depending on how garlicky you want it
pinch of gray salt
2 anchovy fillets
½ cup|about 15 grams coarsely chopped fresh marjoram
¼ cup|60 ml extra-virgin olive oil

for the steak:
2 pounds|900 grams hangar steak, tough sinew removed, cut into 4 portions (ask your butcher to do this)
kosher salt
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons roughly chopped rosemary
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup|60 ml fish sauce
¼ cup|60 ml taleggio sauce
½ tablespoon marjoram-anchovy salsa verde
spicy marmalade
potato chips
pimentón dulce

Directions

  1. Make the the tomato chutney: Combine everything in a pot and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer until jammy. Depending on the juiciness of your tomatoes, this will take from 1 to 1 ¼ hours; keep an eye on it. To test whether your chutney is ready, put a plate in the freezer to chill while the chutney cooks, then place a spoonful on the plate and return it to the freezer for 30 seconds. Pull it out and drag your finger through the chutney, and if it leaves a trail – if the chutney doesn’t run back into itself – it’s ready. It will set a little bit more as it cools. When the chutney is done, taste it; if it seems aggressively acidic, add a pinch more sugar. You want a light sweetness to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes and the vinegar. Let cool, then refrigerate.
  2. Make the Taleggio sauce: Remove the rind from the Taleggio. Cut the cheese into ½ inch cubes and place them in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just begins to simmer, then pour it over the cheese and immediately cover the bowl with plastic wrap. As you need a good seal to trap the heat so the cheese melts, it’s actually best to wrap the plastic around the bowl a few times. Let stand for 20 minutes.
  3. Remove the plastic wrap and, using an immersion blender, blend the cheese and cream until smooth. Taste and add salt. If the sauce seems too thick, add an additional tablespoon or so of hot cream. You want it to be loose enough that you can spread it onto a plate without it clumping.
  4. You can make this a few days ahead of time and refrigerate it. To reheat it, bring to room temperature first, then place the container in a bowl of hot tap water and stir occasionally until the sauce warms and softens; a bain-marie would be the best way of doing this. You may need to add more hot cream.
  5. Make the potato chips: Pour about 3 inches of oil into a medium pot and heat to 350°F (180°C).
  6. While the oil heats, use a mandoline to slice the potatoes into 1/16-inch-thick rounds. Put them in a colander and rinse under hot water for 5 minutes to remove some of their starch, then pat thoroughly dry with a kitchen towerl.
  7. Fry the potatoes in two batches, stirring constantly for even cooking, for 3 or 5 minutes, until they turn a light golden brown. Some will be ready before others – remove and transfer to a wire rack as they are done and immediately season well with salt. Let cool in a single layer. These are best the same day they are made, ideally within a few hours.
  8. Make the the marjoram-anchovy “salsa verde”: Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic with the salt until it’s almost a paste. (The coarse salt helps break down the garlic.) Add the anchovies and pound to break them down and incorporate them. Stir in the marjoram, then pour over enough oil just to cover. You could store this, but come on, make it the day of. Takes like 2 minutes.
  9. Let your steak come to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Coat all the pieces of steak with a generous layer of salt on all sides, really patting it into the flesh. Let sit for another 30 minutes. It may look as if it’s beginning to dry out, and that’s a good thing; it means you’ll get a better sear.
  10. When you’re ready to cook the steak, make the garlic oil: Halve the garlic cloves, and, using a mortar and pestle, mash the with the rosemary until you have pulpy strips. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and set aside.
  11. Heat a large carbon-steel or cast-iron skillet over medium-high for about 5 minutes. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan, then add the steaks, gently pressing them down to get even contact and a good sear, and let cook for 2 minutes. (You will have to do this in batches if your pan isn’t big enough; or use two pans.) Lacquer each piece with two or three brushes of fish sauce, and flip again. After a minute, brush on a thin layer of the garlic oil and flip. Cook for another minute, brush with garlic oil, and flip. If you have an instant-read thermometer, use it to test your steaks’ internal temperature; it should be about 125F (52C). If you don’t have a thermometer, a cake tester inserted into the interior of the steaks for 10 seconds should come out warm. When the steaks are done, let them rest for 5 minutes, ideally propped up on something – like chopsticks laid over a plate – to keep the bottoms from steaming. Set the pan aside.
  12. While the steak is resting, gently warm the Taleggio sauce.
  13. Just before serving, heat the same skillet over medium and lightly sear the steaks again to warm them up, about 30 seconds on each side. Remove from the heat and spread each side of each steak with a generous ½ teaspoon of the salsa verde, then slice each steak horizontally in half into 2 planks.
  14. To serve, spoon 1 tablespoon of the Taleggio sauce onto each of four plates, then place 2 steak slices, pink side up, on each plate. Spoon a tablespoon of the chutney in between each pair of slices and cover each plate with a generous layer of potato chips. Add a dusting of pimentón dulce. Don’t be surprised if people end up dipping their chips into the cheese sauce; it’s not a bad idea.

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