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Flank with Tarragon Butter Sauce

Sometimes called skirt or bavette, flank is a cut taken from the diaphragm muscle of the beef animal. Here it is grilled whole, then sliced and served with a buttery sauce sharpened with shallots and vinegar. It must be cooked so it is rare in the centre or it will be dry. If you like steaks well done, I am afraid you will have to use conventional rump or sirloin.

Making the sauce requires a certain amount of patience, and a small, heavy-bottomed pan to prevent overcooking. It can be made in a food processor, however, if the butter is melted first and trickled in warm. Serve with green vegetables – the courgette salad is good, fried potatoes even nicer …

Serves 4–6

2 whole pieces of flank

a little olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

For the tarragon butter sauce:

4 tablespoons tarragon vinegar

4 tablespoons dry white wine

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 egg yolks

175g/6oz unsalted butter, at room temperature

a small handful of French tarragon leaves, chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the beef with pepper, then rub it with a little olive oil. Set to one side (leaving it at room temperature).

Put the vinegar, white wine and shallots into a small, heavy-bottomed pan and heat to boiling point. Simmer until the liquid has reduced to 1 tablespoon, then remove from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of cold water. Leave to cool, then mix in the egg yolks.

Return the pan to a very low heat and whisk in the butter, one hazelnut-sized piece at a time, until the sauce is thick and glossy. Add the tarragon, then taste and season with salt and pepper. If it becomes grainy or begins to ‘split’, add a dessertspoon of iced water and whisk hard. Once made, the sauce will remain stable for half an hour or so if kept in a warm place; just whisk again before serving.

To grill the meat, set a ridged grill pan over a high heat. When it begins to smoke, lay the meat on the pan and cook for 2–3 minutes on each side, turning down the heat a little if it becomes too smoky. The meat will be rare in the centre. Remove from the heat and leave to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes. It should not be so warm that the beef continues to cook. Meanwhile, warm some dinner plates.

To serve, slice the beef across the grain and place a few slices on each plate, with a dollop of sauce beside it.

How to grill or fry meat

Very rare Sear the steak on both sides; a finger pressed on the surface will leave an indentation.

Rare Sear one side, then continue to cook until droplets of blood are visible on the surface. Turn the meat and cook the other side for an equal time. Some resistance should be felt when pressing a finger on to the surface.

Medium Sear one side, wait until juices (not blood) begin to emerge on the meat surface, then turn and cook the other side.

Other cheap cuts

The onglet is a muscle that connects the last rib to the kidney. It is brownish in colour and there is a faint delicious flavour of kidney. It is not generally used as a grilling steak in the UK, but if you visit a Continental butcher they will know it immediately – if not as onglet (the French name), then perhaps as lombatello (Italian), or solomillo de pulmón (Spanish). In America it is known as the hanging steak. A keen British butcher, with experience in cutting the Continental way, may be able to prepare it for you. Have a discussion when he hasn’t got an enormous queue.

The onglet weighs about 500g/1lb 2oz and, when trimmed of gristle, it can be grilled or roasted whole (but left rare in the centre), then sliced and served with any of the sauces in the previous two recipes.

In Cork City in Ireland, butchers cut a muscle from the shoulder called the Jewish fillet. It is removed whole and totally trimmed of any connecting tissue or gristle, then – as with the other cuts – grilled whole and sliced. It can be served with the lemon and parsley butter, or with the tarragon butter sauce.

Other butchers elsewhere will have different names for the cuts in the recipes above. I once saw an Italian butcher cut the shoulder muscle as above, but my Italian was too appalling to ask about the name for it. Some butchers call onglet thin steak, others call it feather steak, because it is a V shape with grains leading from a central join. Disagreement over the terms leads only to a healthy debate between butcher and customer – I advise getting stuck in.

Cheap cuts in the pot

Almost any forequarter beef or shin meat is suitable for a slow braise. This is easy territory for butchers, who have loads to spare and are longing to get rid of it. If you can make time, encourage the butcher to give you some of the bones, to roast and then simmer with water the day before the braise so you have a ready supply of stock. Preparing stock takes just minutes – then all you have to do is wait until the pot has done its work.