Steak and Egg with Herbed Chilli-Butter (with chips)

When I think of Steak and egg (with chips of course), I always think of my dad and one of my mom’s favourite films, Shirley Valentine. I think about my dad because when I was younger this was the one meal that stood out for me which my dad made really well. His steak was always melt-in-the-mouth and his chips were the best chips in the world. I think about Shirley Valentine because of her husband who always demanded his steak & egg on a Monday, I think it was. She eventually got fed-up, threw the steak & egg against the wall and went to Greece to have love affairs with intriguing Greeks and drink wine on the beach.

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So when I saw a photo of Porterhouse steak on the Saveur website (http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Porterhouse-Lemon-Thyme-Butter), I knew I had to make steak, egg & chips for dinner. I decided to make a herbed chilli-butter to serve on top of the hot steak as I just love the way it melts and oozes it’s way around the plate lending flavour to everything it touches. The herbs & chilli also really complimented the fried egg on top of the steak.

I’m not adding the recipe for the chips as I don’t think I need to teach anyone how to fry a chip. What I will say is that I like to leave the skin on the potatoes when I cut the chips and I always allow the cut chips in a large bowl of water to get rid of some of the starchiness and then I drain them and dry them very well with kitchen paper before frying them in very hot canola/sunflower oil. I add a good pinch of Maldon sea salt (the smoked one also works really well here), as they come out of the oil and then serve them immediately with the steak, egg and herbed chilli-butter.

Serves 2

for the herbed chilli-butter
100g salted butter, room temperature
50g mixed herbs of your choice (I used Italian parsley, chives & thyme)
1 tbsp finely chopped chilli
1 garlic clove, very finely grated/chopped
for the steak & egg
2 x 200g steaks of your choice (I used free-range Rib-eye steaks)
salt & pepper to season
olive oil
2 x extra-large free range eggs
to serve
chips/french fries

1. To make the herbed chilli-butter, simply combine all the ingredients and mix well.
2. Place on a sheet of cling wrap and roll into a sausage shape. Place in the fridge and allow to chill for 30 minutes before serving.
3. To make the steak, simply season the steak with salt & pepper and drizzle with some olive oil. Cook in a griddle pan or on the braai (barbecue) until cooked to your preference (I like mine rare-medium rare).
4. Remove the steaks from the pan/braai and cover with foil. Allow to rest for 5 minutes while you fry the eggs.
5. Fry the eggs in a hot frying pan until the white is set and the yolk is still oozy.
6. Serve the steak topped with the fried eggs topped with some of the herbed chilli-butter and a generous portion of hot chips.