Steak & Chips.... Tuesday Pub Meal Night?

Hubby loves his steak and chips meal, typical male...


Children love their chips as well.  And from the discussions from Masterchef forums, I learnt that duck fat is the best for cooking the perfect chips... Well, not exactly healthy, but why not.  Duck fat are sold in local butcher and poultry shops and ever since Masterchef, it's on the Cole's shelves as well, $5.95 for 500g, not exactly budget.  Lucky for me, I also learnt from the forums that duck fat is just duck fat, save some when roasting the ducks, and that's what I did, apart from the perfect free range duck for the Duck A L'orange, I end up with a jar of duck fat, perfect for the special treats like chips, roast potatoes and ah, the York Shire Pud.... 


We bought some nice juice scotch fillets from the butcher and some sausages - steaks are not so "children" friendly just yet, although the 10 year old is getting used to the lamb, but beef, he's still having a bit of trouble, he prefers mince.  Same thing with the girl.


The steaks are not thick cuts, about 2cms thick, so 2 minute on one side and flip over for another 1.5 minute on hot frying pan (I'd normally use griller but children don't like char grilled marks on their sausages so I just used to big frying pan instead) and then rest aside for a minute (I let the steaks stay in the same pan with the lid on to rest this time.)


I have done the chips the way George Calombaris taught in the Master Class (he's one of the coolest chefs by the way), they were nice but it takes a long time to dry out the chips boiled in water.  My short cut is the microwave.... I peeled and cut the potatoes in desired shapes, put the chips in the microwave steamer, and in there on high for 6 minutes.  Let them out to cool in colander, they got dry at the same time as cooling down, the microwave version of the preparation will cook the chips initially, but won't make them too wet.

After 30-45 minutes, they were ready for the deep frying, in the bubbling duck fat.

Normally I'd make some garlic and herb butter for the steaks, but since I have got some beurre blanc sauce left over from the other night in the fridge, I just used the same sauce again.....  All we need is beer now.