Firstly, so sorry about the blurry pic! I had turned my lens into manual focus at the weekend for some still life exercises, and forgot to switch it back to automatic. Of course then I made lunch, snapped some pics, ate my lunch and only realised after I ate, that the pictures all came out blurry. Oh well. Will take a new picture when I get the chance.

Last week, I started looking around for recipes that incorporated chocolate into a savoury dish, besides the obvious Mexican mole. Saveur had some good ideas on savoury chocolate dishes, but I didn’t fancy of them. The handsome and talented husband returned from his week-long trip to Antwerp on Friday and he raved about the amazing steak dinner he’d had with his colleagues. Aha! How about a classic steak and Béarnaise sauce? Except I’d add chocolate to the Béarnaise sauce.

So that’s what happened! I usually use this Béarnaise recipe, omitting the lemon juice (no, no, that would make it too close to a Hollandaise!) and adding dry white wine.

Make the white chocolate Béarnaise

In a saucepan, add 1 shallot, 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 1 cup white wine, 1 cup water, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes then leave to infuse for 15 minutes. Strain with a sieve and let the liquid cool.

Then, take 2 egg yolks and mix with 1 cup of the cooled wine-vinegar infusion in a clean saucepan. Whip with a flat whisk over a low fire to make sure the egg doesn’t cook in clumps. Then I add the chocolate.  I use 150g of Valrhona white baking chocolate in this, chopped into small pieces. When the chocolate has melted into the liquid, add 100g unsalted room temperature butter. Add more tarragon if you like, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Grill the beef

I towel dry the beef. Turn up the heat on the cast iron pan or griddle to the max. Mine takes usually a minute to make the surface smoke. In the meantime, sprinkle salt and pepper on your beef. Then place onto the griddle and cook on each side for 2 minutes. Take the beef out of the pan and onto a chopping board. Cut into slices, then plate and drizzle with the white chocolate Béarnaise.

I served mine with fries and grilled chicory on the side.

Enjoy!