It’s rare that we have steak, so when we do, I make damned sure that cow didn’t die in vain; Served with blistered asparagus, honey-roasted onion, and a tangy pan sauce, it’s the kind of dish that stops people mid-sentence at first bite.
This dish is all about layering contrasting flavors and textures, with thick-cut, grass-fed, dry-aged Norwegian Wagyu/NRF cross breed from Nyyyt, salted well ahead and seared brutally post-sous-vide as the base.
It’s a showcase of Maillard complexity and aged umami; simply beef being its truest self; nutty crispy crust, basted in garlic-thyme brown butter, finished with a spoonful (or two!) crème fraîche pan sauce with tarragon, and crushed pink peppercorn. Sure, a nod to Bearnaise, but way quicker and easier, and healthier too!
Onion roasted with honey, thyme, and subtle notes of star anise; soft, caramelized Maillard sugar ties back to the beef crust. The thyme echoes the beef baste.
The asparagus is blistered to the point of char, crackling against a plate that’s otherwise all velvet and creamy. It plays off the mustard in the mash, complements char in beef crust, and resets the palate between bites.
Fat against acid, sweet against char, soft against crisp; Each element leans into the next.
Are you drooling like an idiot yet? Good. Let’s cook the damned thing!
Ingredients
Steak
- 1 kg top quality steak*
- 20 g fine sea salt
- 2 tsp high temp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cloves garlic, bashed
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
*more on choosing the right steak in the Mini Masterclass below 🙂
Onion
- 2 large yellow onions
- 2 tsp honey
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 1/2 star anise
- 1 sprig thyme
- Thin drizzle olive oil
Celeriac
- 1 kg celery root (celeriac)
- 50 g real butter
- Fine sea salt to taste
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
Asparagus
- 8-12 nice and fat (or 16-20 thinner) green asparagus spears
- fine sea salt
Pan sauce
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar (or beer vinegar) to deglaze
- 300 ml low fat crème fraîche (I used 17%)
- Pan drippings and steak juice
- Fine sea salt to taste
- 10 g (3 tbsp) fresh tarragon, finely chopped
- Generous amount fresh cracked pink peppercorns
Method summary
- Salt the steak well in advance (15–20 g salt per kg, ideally 24 hrs).
- Sous-vide at 52 °C for 20 minutes while you prep everything else.
- Char onion slices on both cut sides, roast at 180 °C for 20 min.
- Peel, dice, and boil celeriac, blend with butter, season with salt, stir in mustard.
- Trim asparagus and sear hard until blistered.
- Sear steak hard in smoking-hot pan, baste with butter, garlic & thyme.
- Rest the steak, save the juices.
- Deglaze pan with vinegar, reduce, add crème fraîche and steak juice. Stir in tarragon & cracked pink pepper.
- Plate it all: steak on purée, onion beside, asparagus on the edge, sauce over. Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt on asparagus and pink pepper on the sauce.
Method details:
If you want the most amazing flavor and juicy steak, you ALWAYS salt well ahead. Minimum a few hours ahead, ideally a day ahead. That’s what I did.
Some call this “dry brining”, but a brine is wet; this is simply salting well ahead. 15-20 g fine sea salt per kg pure meat is perfect. Then you just let it sit in the fridge and let osmosis do its thing until you’re ready to rock n’ roll in the galley.
Next, peal the onions, cut off the top and bottom so that the thickest part is 5-6 cm (2″) thick. Slice in half making sure all cut surfaces are parallel and you have two even thickness onion slices of about 2-3 cm each.
Sear each slice on its widest side on a white hot pan until nicely and evenly charred, but not burnt.
Put a sheet of aluminum foil on your baking tray, drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil, put the onion slices on top. Drizzle or smear honey on each slice, a sprinkle fine sea salt, 1/8 star anise on each, finish with the thyme and wrap it all up.
Bake in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat when done, and keep warm until serving.
Put the steak in a sous vide or water bath holding 50C for 20 minutes.
I sold my sous vide setup when we moved aboard our boat, so instead, I just use a big pot of water and a thermometer; add water holding 55-60C to the pot, lower the steak in a bag into the water, and keep an eye on the temp; stir occasionally, and add more hot water as it falls below 50C – aim for 52C when adding warm water for medium rare.
Steak core temperature chart:
| Remove from heat at this temperature | Final cooked temperature | |
| Rare | 48ºC / 118ºF | 50ºC / 120ºF |
| Medium Rare | 52ºC / 125ºF | 54ºC / 130ºF |
| Medium | 58ºC / 136ºF | 60ºC / 140ºF |
Prep the asparagus by trimming the ends; take off the woody part, and make sure they have equal length and clean cut surface.
Meanwhile peal, dice and cook the celery root until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Drain, and tip into a upright blender along with 50 g butter and blend until silky smooth. Season to taste with fine sea salt until it sings. Transfer back to your pot and add the 2 tsp whole grain mustard. Keep warm, or reheat, whatever works for you.
Heat a cast iron pan until white hot and smoking. Pat your steak completely dry, then add a tiny splash oil to get rendering going and sear all edges first, then each side, flipping with a tong every 20 seconds or so. Use a spatula to gently press down to ensure even browning all over each cut surface, and as you flip, take note where it needs to be pressed next time.
30 seconds before it’s done, turn down the heat and add the butter, thyme and bashed garlic, then baste the steak using a steel spoon. Flip it over and baste again. Done!
Set aside to rest on a cutting board with juice gutter until ready to plate; cutting into the steak is the very last thing you do.
Immediately after the steak is set to rest, sear off the asparagus at the highest possible heat; let them sit on one side for 2-3 minutes until nicely blistered and browned, then flip and repeat. Transfer to a plate, and keep warm.
Drain most of the rendered fat in the pan into a small ovenproof container.
Save that fat for later; it’s incredible on toast or when toasting burger buns, maybe whip a little into soft butter with herbs, garlic, mustard.
Or… hear me out…infuse bourbon or rye whisky with warm beef fat, freeze, then strain. Fat-washed spirits adds umami depth to cocktails like an Old Fashioned. Call it a Steakhouse Old Fashioned and wear a leather apron while you pour :p
With most of the fat off the pan, deglaze with the vinegar, reduce by half, at least, then cut the heat, add the crème fraîche as well as the leaked steak juices from the cutting board and stir well to combine. Season to perfection with fine sea salt, then add the tarragon and crack over pink peppercorns.
When ready to serve, plate as in the picture, add a sprinkle of fine sea salt on the asparagus, a few picked thyme leaves on the onion, and a few gentle turns of pink peppercorns over the sauce.
Mini Masterclass: Choosing the right steak
This isn’t the dish for bargain-bin, wet-aged, grain-fed mediocrity. Instead, go for a entrecôte (ribeye) or ytrefilet (sirloin/striploin), porterhouse, tomahawk or something along those lines.
You do want it grass-fed, you do want it dry-aged, and you do want it from proper beef cattle. Breed matters. Not just in fat content, but in muscle fibre, growth rate, diet, and intramuscular chemistry.
Grass-fed Angus (especially from Scotland or the Nordics) brings a nutty, iron-rich depth that isn’t drowned in fat. Hereford possibly the best pure beef flavour out there; less marbled than Angus but deeper, cleaner, more savoury.
While I’ve had pure Waguy many times, this cross breed between Waguy/NRF cross breed I got my hands on is superior to any of those simply because pure Waguy is too damned rich and fatty for a whole steak, and doesn’t have that super deep beef-flavor you want for this dish. A Waguy/Angus cross would also be perfect for this.
Bone-in or boneless, I honestly don’t give a flying fuck; it’s mostly for dramatic effect, not flavor. If you like what it looks like, go for it, just remember to add 15-20% weight. That’s the premium you pay for the show.
What does matter is a clean muscle structure, no weird sinew, incredible marbling, and keeping the fat cap on if you have that option for the sirloin; mixed with a good knob of butter it makes the best basting there is as you finish the sear.
Nutritional info
This is a protein-forward dish showcasing premium beef and clever fat control. The steak delivers about 60 g protein; the celeriac purée and sauce contribute most of the fat, but rendered beef fat is mostly discarded or set aside for other use. Carbs come chiefly from the celeriac and onion, both low-GI vegetables, keeping the glycaemic impact modest.
Overall, it’s a nutrient-dense, flavour-packed meal, perfect as an occasional weekend indulgence and balanced enough to enjoy without completely derailing your macros – it’s heaps better than a typical serving of NY style pizza at 1200 kcals!
Per serving:
- 770 kcal
- 60 g protein
- 45 g fat
- 40 g carbs
- 6 g fibre
- GI: Low–Moderate
Variations
If asparagus isn’t in season, try green beans or broccoli or broccolini instead.
Absolutely do try this recipe with chunky steakhouse fries or oven roasted potatoes instead of the purée. Hell, even oven roasted potatoes tossed in duck fat if you feel truly indulgent – but make no mistake – this will fuck up your macros!
Wine pairings
We usually enjoy this with our house red wine, Ogier Côtes-du-Rhône Artésis, a reliable, fruit-forward Rhône blend that handles the beef and plays nice with the sauce.
But if you want to go all in, reach for a Cornas. This northern Rhône Syrah is darker, wilder, and more savoury; black olive, smoked meat, and herbs, with enough grip to slice through the fat. Another worthy contender: a proper Rioja Reserva for leathery spice and mellow red fruit. Both will turn every bite into a true mouthgasm.
