Minute steak – just ask my husband – is not a proper caveman steak, but it is still steak, and is, therefore greatly to be desired by men. It’s the perfect meal to make for boys who have assembled en mass to do something handy; put up a rail for pans without drilling through the mains wire, for instance.
But this is also a girlfriend friendly steak – I think the vaguely Mediterranean flavors help – and it feels like a treat, which, of course it is.
I usually serve this with fresh pasta – papadelle or taglitelle – to soak up the sauce. The bonus is that the pasta cooks in the same time as the steak more or less, so dinner can go from zero to hero in about four minutes, including boiling the kettle.
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 minute steaks (1 or 2 per person – I’d err on the side of caution and use any left overs on sandwiches the next day)
1 large Spanish onion
Juice of a lemon
½ cup cream
1 clove of garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp of butter
Salt and pepper
- Season the steaks with salt and pepper and pour over the lemon juice
- Melt the butter in a frying pan with the oil and the rosemary
- Turn up the heat and cook the steak for 1 minute on each side
- Move the meat to a plate to rest, and cover with foil to keep warm
- Turn the heat down to medium and grate the garlic into the pan. Toss for a few seconds to cook.
- Pour in the lemon juice and the cream and allow to bubble for a moment into a sauce, scraping in the brown bits from the bottom of the pan
- Fish out the rosemary sprig, then pour the sauce over the steak
Serving Suggestions:
- Serve with fresh pasta
- Or a hunk of French bread
- Or a baked potato
- Or a can of white beans drained and heated in some olive oil, with half a clove of garlic grated in,  then mashed with a fork
- And blanched green beans
- Or a green salad with a handful of sugar snap peas thrown in, and a simple lemon and olive oil dressing