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A Russian steak with a reduced Borscht-inspired sauce finished off with a dollop of sour cream and a spoonful of caviar, this is a delicious Russian steak recipe where luxury meets rustic.
There is a particular Russian style synonymous with overt decadence and extravagance. Indulgence in designer clothes, Champagne and caviar for most, is certainly not an everyday thing for most people but a little bit every now and then is definitely recommended, at least for the soul.
A treat that is affordable
When it comes to indulgence with food, you don’t have to spend a fortune on luxury ingredients such as foie gras, caviar, lobster or wagyu beef. You can pimp up your Friday night staple steak effectively and economically so that we can all bring a little bit of the Russian Tsar luxury out in us all.
Steak night, although tends to be a little dearer than most meals is however still a thing with most cuts available to you that won’t break the bank. Beautifully seared and served with chips and a tempting sauce all washed down with a bottle of your favourite rouge, a decent steak is timeless. With the different cuts available from butcher favourites such as bavette and skirt which make less of a dent on the pocket, to prime cuts such as fillet, ribeye and côte de boeuf to name a few, there is a choice to suit most budgets. The sauce recommendations are plentiful too. Favourites such as the classic béarnaise, peppercorn sauce, Dianne or red wine reduction are easy enough to make and varied enough too. However, at Flavourise, we want to give you another alternative that will feel that little bit more special, a little bit like preparing a steak Rossini which sees a lightly seared morsel of foie gras on top of a prime fillet of beef, but for a fraction of the price.
Our Russian steak - elegant and humble
Our Russian steak embodies the indulgence of the modern Russian bourgeois with seemingly elaborate flare but uses flavours strongly ingrained in Russian heritage that are easy and economic to the source. This impressive Russian steak dish uses any perfectly cooked steak of your choice and embellishes it with a powerful vibrant sauce made similar to that of borscht, a classic eastern European rustic soup made with beef, beetroot, cabbage and tomato. Furthermore, to impart a salty and umami dimension to complement the steak, we serve this with a dollop of caviar and finally to cut through these intense flavours, we add a cooling sour cream and aromatic fronds of delicious dill.
Caviar? Not expensive! Well of course you can pay through the nose for caviar such as beluga, sevruga or oscietra and even other caviar types such as swedish lojrom which are eggs from the vendace or european cisco as opposed to the sturgeon normally used for caviar. Here, we can use lumpfish caviar which is deep blue/ black in colour and has a full salty flavour and great texture that actually enhances the Russian steak rather than using a premium caviar, which well let’s face it would be decadence and opulence to the bone if your were able to use it to top your steak. If you do have portions of this to use, it may be more recommended to consume it in the more traditional way. Other caviars to look out for would be trout roe caviar or wild salmon keta caviar which are pink or orange in appearance. The dark obsidian hue of lumpfish caviar juxtaposed to the creamy white of the sour cream however gives for a better presentation to the dish.
How to make Borscht sauce for your Russian steak
Making this sauce that is based on borscht is actually very easy. It can also be finished off in more ways than one too. Starting by gently frying some chopped onion with some carrot and beetroot before adding a decent beef stock is simple. Adding a little bit of tomato purée adds a depth of colour and the addition of garlic and roasted red pepper add spice and sweetness to make a rounded flavour.
Reduce the liquid to develop the flavour then you can either leave it as is or put in a blender to create a thick reddish-purple sauce.
When blended the texture is as thick as a decent tomato pasta sauce and can be spooned on the plate with the steak sat on top with the chips served on the side, or alternatively, you can spoon over the chips and mix in slices of the steak and create a fun decadent version of dirty fries all topped with a generous lashing of sour cream and a spoonful of caviar.
Whichever way you decide to present your Russian steak, the flavours are amazing and the colours are vivid and alluring.
How to cook steak to your taste
The first thing is to find which steak you want to cook. Generally just look to see what is best on the day, sirloin, rump and fillet will be the most prevalent and excellent choices but other cuts such as a bavette or skirt steak are the cheaper options and have bundles of flavour. These cuts are best-cooked medium rare to rare otherwise they will become too chewy if you cook them longer. Whichever steak you prefer it is important for it to be room temperature before you cook it, so take it out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you do and if it is in a vacuum pack make sure you remove the packaging.
Once the meat is at room temperature season both sides with a little salt. Steaks cook best on high heat so put a pan on the hob and let it warm up for about 5 minutes. To help you know when the pan is hot enough you can pour a little cooking oil in and wait until it starts to smoke. Otherwise, rub your steak in the oil and use a dry pan for cooking it, this way you know you will not have used too much oil and your steak won’t be greasy.
When ready place the steak/s in your pan and sear the sides on high heat. Turning your steaks frequently will ensure a more even cooking and less of a chance to burn the outside. Add a knob of butter to the pan during the process and baste the top of your steak/s spooning the bubbling liquid over the meat. Different thicknesses of steaks will mean differing cooking times but generally, a 3cm steak will take about 2 ½ to 3 minutes to reach medium rare, 4 or so minutes for medium and 5 to 6 minutes plus for well done.
Once your steak is cooked the process is not done as the meat needs to rest. Resting a steak or any cooked meat really is an essential part of the process as it allows the fibres to relax and hold on to much more of its juices. Your steak should rest for at least 5 minutes before serving or slicing if you a presenting that way and the juices will stay inside your steak rather than running all over the place.
Whilst your steak is resting, this is a perfect time to plate up. We serve it with chips, and today oven cooked skin-on chips are definitely the simplest and most tasty with no need for messy and smelly deep-fat frying, just make sure you’ve put them in a hot oven for 25 minutes or so beforehand. Your sauce will be ready to spoon a portion on your plates, put the chips in bowls then slice your steak/s and arrange them over the sauce. Spoon over some sour cream and a fancy quenelle of caviar and garnish with dill fronds. Bon appetit! or 'priyatnogo appetita' in Russian.
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Russian steak recipe
Equipment
- 2 Heavy-bottom frying pan
- 1 Saucepan optional, as you can use one pan for both the steak and sauce
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 4 steaks of your choice or 1 côte de boeuf, take out of the fridge 30 minutes prior to cooking
- 1 knob of butter, se use salted with sea salt
- 2 portions of oven cooked chips
- 2 tablespoon of sour cream
- 2 teaspoon of lumpfish caviar (or whichever caviar you like)
- Fresh dill to garnish
For the Russian steak sauce
- ½ a large beetroot, peeled and chopped
- 1 small red onion, chopped
- 1 roasted red pepper, chopped
- 400 ml or 1 3/4 cups of beef stock
- 1 teaspoon of tomato purée
Instructions
For the sauce
- Add a little olive oil to a pan and place on medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrot and beetroot and fry for 8 - 10 minutes stirring frequently.
- Pour in the stock and add the tomato puree and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and a little dried dill.
- If you don’t want to blend the sauce, omit the red pepper, reduce the stock a little longer and set aside. If you are blending, add the red pepper and transfer to a blender and process until smooth. Set aside to reheat in a pan when ready to serve.
- Place the chips in a preheated oven and cook as per instruction
Cook the steak
- Put a heavy-based frying pan on high heat and warm it up for 5 minutes. Pour some olive oil over your steak and rub it all over then season with salt on both sides. Place the steaks in the pan with the butter and turn frequently basting the top with the hot butter until cooked to your liking.
- Take your steaks out of the pan and rest on a wooden board or wire rack for 5 minutes.
- Slice the steak and reheat the sauce in a pan and add any juices that have run out of your steak.
- Spread equal portions of the sauce directly onto the plate and arrange the steak on top. Spoon the sour cream and caviar on the steak and garnish with fresh dill fronds. Serve with the chips on the side.
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