Steak with maître d’hotel butter and roasted new potatoes

Jeff once wrote in one comment that you can’t beat meat and potatoes – João totally agrees with that. :)

I saw this steak recipe and then the new potatoes recipe on the same book - 140 pages apart - and decided to make both and serve them together.

João loved it so much I’ve made it twice already.

Steak with maître d’hotel butter and roasted new potatoes
from Family Food

90g (6 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
lemon juice
4 steaks, about 1,3cm thick – I used 2cm thick tenderloin steaks
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
ground black pepper

Potatoes:
600g new potatoes
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons thyme leaves – I used rosemary
2 teaspoons coarse salt

Cream the butter in a bowl, using a wooden spoon, then beat in a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and the parsley. Add about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, a few drops at a time. Let the butter harden in the refrigerator a little, then form it into a log shape by rolling it up in waxed paper. Put it in the refrigerator until you need it.

Make the potatoes: Pre-heat the oven to 205ºC/400ºF. Cut the potatoes in half and place them in a roasting pan. Add the oil, thyme/rosemary and salt and mix well all the potatoes are coated.
Roast for 30-40 minutes or until they’re golden and cooked through.

Season the steaks with salt and pepper on both sides. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and, when it is very hot, add the steaks - here, I added one small red chili finely sliced; it's totally optional. Cook them for 2 minutes on each side for medium, and 4 minutes on each side for well done. The cooking times may very depending on the thickness of your steaks – if they are thin, give them a slightly shorter time and if they are thick, cook them for longer.
Cut the butter into slices and put a couple of slices on top of each steak. The heat of the steaks will melt down the butter.
Serve with the potatoes, vegetables or salad.

Serves 4.