Recipes / Meat
Sirloin steak with creamy mushroom sauce
Thick sirloin steaks seared over hot coals, served under a garlic, thyme and cream mushroom sauce made in a pan on the side of the fire.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 25 min
- Plan ahead
- 30 minutes for the steaks to lose their fridge chill
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 130°F (55°C)
Ingredients
Steaks
Mushroom sauce
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Take the steaks out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Pat them dry and rub with the oil.
- Build a two-zone fire: a thick bed of hot coals on one side and a thin layer on the other.
- Set a heavy pan over the cooler side. Melt the butter and cook the garlic and thyme for 1 minute until the garlic just colours.
- Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring now and then, until they release their liquid and start to brown.
- Pour in the cream, bring it to a gentle bubble, and cook for 5 minutes until it coats a spoon. Stir in the lemon juice and season. Move the pan to the very edge of the fire to stay warm.
- Salt the steaks and lay them over the hot coals. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes a side, turning once, for medium-rare.
- Rest the steaks for 5 minutes on a warm plate, then spoon the sauce over them.
Done when: the steaks are well browned and a thermometer in the middle reads 55°C (130°F) for medium-rare or 63°C (145°F) for medium, the safe temperature for whole cuts of beef, before a 5-minute rest.
Tips
- Do not crowd the mushrooms. If the pan is small, brown them in two batches, or they steam and go grey.
- A few dried porcini, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, deepen the sauce. Add the soaking water with the cream.
- Pour any juices from the resting steaks into the sauce.
Mushroom sauce sits next to pepper sauce and monkey gland sauce on every South African steakhouse menu, and it is easy to make at home on the edge of the braai. The sauce cooks over the cooler coals while the fire for the steaks gets hot. If you prefer something sweeter and tangier, try rump steak with monkey gland sauce.
Source
Adapted from Steak and mushroom sauce at Woolworths TASTE and Creamy mushroom sauce at Eat Out.