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Grilled Beef Rib Eye with Eggplant and Pepper Sauce is a great riff on an old classic.
This particular pepper sauce recipe originated at the Builders Arms Hotel, and has evolved over many years. I’m quite nostalgic about classic pub fare and a porterhouse steak with pepper sauce is one of my favourite things to eat at the local!
This recipe is designed specifically to serve with beef, but it’s also great as a dressing for a mussel salad with a few sprigs of coriander, if you’re not too keen on red meat. The following also makes more sauce than you’ll likely need for either dish, and it will keep for a few days in the fridge, so you could try both!
Ingredients (serves 4)
1.2kg beef rib eye
8 cipollini onions
Eggplant Puree
1 eggplant
1 Tbsp light soy tamari
1⁄2 tsp sesame oil
100ml grape seed oil
1 tsp lemon juice
Pepper Sauce
3 red Asian shallots, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
60ml grape seed oil
2 long red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
2 tsp black peppercorns, roughly ground
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
Method
To make the eggplant puree, peel the eggplant and steam until tender. Remove from the steamer and leave to cool in a colander. Squeeze any excess liquid out of the eggplant with your hands and blend the eggplant with the sesame oil, salt and tamari. While the blender is running slowly, drizzle the oil into the eggplant until emulsified.
Peel the onions and steam for 20 minutes until tender or a skewer pierces the onion effortlessly. Transfer the onion to the fridge to cool until ready to serve.
To make the pepper sauce, warm a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat, gently sauté the shallots, ginger and garlic in the grape seed oil for three to four minutes until aromatic. Add the chilli and black pepper and continue to cook for a further two minutes. Add the sugar and the sweet, dark and light soy sauces and bring to the simmer. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, stir in the rice wine vinegar.
An hour before you plan to cook the beef, take your cut from the fridge and season with plenty of salt. Leave the beef out of the fridge to come to room temperature. Preheat a barbeque or chargrill pan. When the grill is hot, brush the meat with a little grape seed oil and place on the hot grill. Cook to your preferred degree of done-ness.
When the beef is cooked, remove it from the heat and set it aside in a warm place, loosely tented with aluminium foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes.
When you wish to serve, cut the onions in half and roast in the oven cut side down until golden. Meanwhile warm the pepper sauce and eggplant puree separately in saucepans over medium heat. Place the puree on a serving plate and arrange the beef and onions on top, drizzle over the pepper sauce.
