Poire de boeuf, foie gras et cèpes

It does not always need to be complicated. With a few good ingredients you can make a meal for a prince.

There are a few prime cuts of beef that are rare, and that butchers keep behind for themselves or good clients. I happen to be on the good list of my local meat provider and have the chance to buy, from time to time, the “pear” or the “whiting” (poire and merlan in French) because they have a likeness in shape. In Britain and the United States, a beef is cut up differently and corresponding pieces could be the “buttock steak” and the “top side”.

From this piece of meat of 800 grammes, I cut two small steaks.

After the end of year festivities, foie gras duck liver was on sale. I also had some dried cèpes in the cupboard, which I soaked in water.

I fried the beef in a mix of butter, olive oil and some sesame oil. I added salt and pepper and sat aside. I patted dry the cèpes and stirred them briefly. Then I put a piece of beef on a warm platter, added foie gras and some coarse rock salt, and topped off with some slices of the wild mushroom.