Back in the days when City Larder was just a twinkle in Robbie and Rebecca Bell’s eye, they were working at Melbourne restaurant institution Rockpool Bar and Grill. Robbie was the Executive Sous Chef and Rebecca worked front of house and was deep in wine sommelier training.

It is fair to say that during that time, Robbie learnt a thing or two about cooking steak. One hot tip - season your steak with salt only prior to cooking but keep the freshly ground pepper until it is finished as otherwise the pepper will burn and taste bitter.
A beautiful bottle of Syrah/Shiraz would be perfect with this.

Ingredients

• 2 x 200g beef fillet steaks
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 100g unsalted butter, diced and cold
• 1 shallot, chopped finely
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 125ml Madeira (fortified wine)
• 200ml veal jus – supermarket bought is just fine
• 150g City Larder Free Range Chicken Liver & Truffle Pâté
• 2 slices sourdough, crusts removed so it’s about the same size of the steak
• handful of baby spinach leaves

Method

1. Remove the meat from the fridge 20 minutes ahead of time and season well with salt.
2. Heat a frying pan until hot, add the oil and sear the steak 2-3 minutes on both sides, as well as along the edges. You’re looking to cook them medium-rare, though they will also be rewarmed just before serving. Remove from the heat and set aside to rest.
3. To make the sauce, reduce the pan to a medium heat and melt 20g of butter until frothy. Sauté chopped shallot for several minutes then add bay leaf and thyme and cook for a further couple of minutes until the shallot turns translucent. Deglaze with Madeira and allow the liquid to reduce by half. Pour in veal jus and then whisk in 50g of butter until the sauce becomes glossy. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from pan and keep warm.
4. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel so it’s mostly clean. Heat the last of the butter (30g) until foaming then add the sourdough slices and cook a few minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove from the pan and drain onto kitchen paper. Quickly wilt the spinach in the same hot pan then remove and add the rested steaks to rewarm for 1 minute each side while you start plating up.
5. To serve, lay down a toasted sourdough slice onto the centre of each plate and add half the spinach. Place the rested steak on top of the sourdough, and spoon some sauce across the lot. Crown with a generous scoop - or quenelle if you want to be fancy - of Chicken Liver & Truffle Pâté.