FILLET STEAK AND LOBSTER

Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves 4

This is an extravagant way to serve both lobster and steak – a special treat for a bank holiday weekend – but you can make a second meal out of the lobster in the form of a pasta dish or bisque (look out for a follow-up soon in these pages).

Itendtobuy chateaubriand, which is the head of the fillet and much better value than the prime centre-cut fillet that everyone wants.

This is a fun dish to cook on the barbecue (or on the hob) as a main course and it’s a fine example of two great ingredients just simply served side by side.

INGREDIENTS

– 2 medium cooked

lobsters

– 500-600g piece of chateaubriand, cut into 4 steaks

– a little vegetable or

corn oil, for brushing

For the sauce

– 2 large shallots,

finely chopped

– 40g butter

– 50ml white wine – 150ml beef stock – 200ml double cream –1tbspgreen

peppercorns

– 1 tbsp chopped parsley

METHOD Remove the tails from the lobsters and cut them in half with a heavy chopping knife. Freeze the heads and claws for a future meal (I’ll be using them in a spaghetti dish in this column soon).

To make the sauce, gently cook the shallot in the butter for a minute or so until soft, then add the wine and simmer until it has reduced completely. Add the stock and heat to reduce it by two thirds.

Pour in the cream and simmer until the sauce has thickened then stir in the peppercorns and parsley, and season if necessary.

Preheat a barbecue or ribbed griddle pan, season the steaks, lightly oil them and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on their thickness; I like them nice and rare but you can cook them for longer if you wish.

Put the halved lobster tails on the barbecue or griddle for a couple of minutes on each side while the steaks cook.

Arrange the steak and lobster on warmed serving plates and spoon the sauce over to serve.