We Americans sure do love our burgers and fries, but if you’re looking to elevate your palette, chef Quang “Q” Nguyen invites you to try his recipe for the European brasserie staple, steak frites.

Nguyen serves as executive chef at Cool World bar and restaurant, a new neighborhood bistro concept serving hearty and healthy meals in Brooklyn, New York City. The menu features an array of delectable dishes that nod to ‘90s brasserie favorites, as well as Nguyen’s own childhood in Louisiana and Texas, and his Vietnamese heritage.

See also: Weekly Recipe: Lamb Shank Barbacoa By Carnivale Chicago

This recipe for steak and fries can be made to fit your preferred cut of beef, but chef uses the teres major, a steak closer to the shoulder of the cow.

“It eats like a tenderloin but has a bit more fat which leads to more flavor,” he says. “I’d season it with salt and pepper, and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to an hour before cooking it. At Cool World, we like a heavy-duty cast iron or blue carbon steel pan for even heat distribution and good retention.”

Chef Nguyen also employs a secret weapon he calls “tasty paste” to give the brown butter sauce extra flavor.

“This is an ingredient that we make in-house,” he says. “It has over 15 ingredients and requires some time roasting, cooking, blending and passing through a chinois. It’s a tomato-based condiment made with a lot of charred allium and some liquids that bring a lot of umami to the party. To save you guys the trouble, I would just take A-1 steak sauce and cook it down to about 60 percent of its original volume and use it in place of Tasty paste. It should be high in umami, and a bit intense in flavor.”

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If you’re looking to shock your guests with some award-winning flavor, this recipe is sure to be a game changer without forcing you to get a degree in the culinary arts. You’ll definitely learn something from the experience, and you’ll be back for more.

“Be generous with the sauce,” chef Nguyen says. “It’s made to pair well with the meat and the fries. Happy cooking!”

Steak Frites With Brown Butter Bearnaise Sauce And Roasted Cippolinis

Ingredients:

Steak

• 6 to 8 oz Teres Major steak
• 4 oz butter (to brown and baste)
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• Small handful of thyme
• 2 fresh bay leaves

Charred onions

• 2 cippolini onions
• 30 g beef fat

Fries

• 1 qts worth of fries of your desired shape
• Salt to taste
• Tajin to taste

Brown Butter Shiro Dashi (Brown Butter Bearnaise Sauce):

• 185vg brown butter
• 1 ea egg yolk
• 5 0g water
• 20 g champagne vinegar
• 10 g shirodashi
• 13 g molasses
• 4 g salt
• 1 g pasilla powder
• 1 g scallion ash
• 65 g tasty paste

Directions:

Pre-sauce making prep:

Brown butter

1. Over medium to medium-high heat, melt and brown 1 pound of butter. Cook the butter while constantly whisking to ensure that the milk solids are moving and don’t settle to the bottom and burn. You know it’s ready when it smells nutty and is a deep golden brown.
2. Transfer to a heat-safe bowl to stop the cooking process. Once the butter has cooled to a warm temperature, weigh out 185g and keep warm until sauce making time.

Pasilla powder

1. Deseed 8 dried pasilla chilis.
2. In an oven preheated to 325, toast the chilis until fragrant, about 6 to 8 minutes.
3. Once the chilis have cooled, pulverize them in a blender until a fine powder.

Scallion ash

1. In an oven preheated to 375, roast 4 bunches of scallions until completely dried so they’ve become deep, dark brown in color.
2. Allow to cool, then pulverize them in a blender until a fine powder.

Tasty paste replacement

1. Cook A-1 steak sauce down to about 60 percent of its original volume, and use it in place of Tasty paste.

To make the sauce

1. Your brown butter should be melted but not hot, around 120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. To make the bearnaise, combine all the ingredients in a blender except for the brown butter. Blend the contents until they become warm to the touch but not hot. Think the same temperature as the brown butter.
3. At medium to medium-high speed on your blender, slowly stream in your brown butter, and make sure all the browned milk solids go in as well—that’s the flavor! Don’t stream too slowly, because if you take too long, you risk the chance of getting your emulsion too hot, therefore breaking it.
4. Once all the ingredients have been combined, taste your sauce to see if it needs anymore seasoning. You should have a thick, velvety sauce that’s ready to serve. If you are waiting to serve it, it’s best to keep it somewhere warm but, once again, not too hot.
5. At the restaurant, we throw the sauce into an ISI gun and charge it to aerate it and give it a lighter texture. That’s not really necessary, but the hard part of our Steak Frites is over.

To make the steak and fries

1. Cook your steak to your desired doneness.
2. Preheat your oven to 400F, and get a pot with oil or a small fryer up to 350F.
3. With just a touch of oil in the pan, preheat it just until the oil starts to smoke. Place your steak in the pan, laying it away from you, and give it a good hard sear on all sides. This means letting it sit on each side for at least 1 to 2 minutes until a crust forms. If you’re starting to get a little char, turn the heat down a little bit. If the crust isn’t happening within 2 minutes, turn the heat up.
4. Next, let your steak rest for about 5 minutes, then flash it in a 400F oven for two minutes.
5. Let it rest again for 5 minutes.
6. Brown some butter in the same pan you seared the steak, throw your garlic and herbs in (watch out, they’re going to pop a little bit) and baste the steak until it’s just under where you want it.
7. Now, let it rest for about 10 minutes. This should take it the rest of the way to doneness.
8. While your steak is resting, char some onions with beef fat, and fry some really crispy fries and season them with salt and Tajin.
9. Throw a little flaky sea salt onto your steak once it’s sliced, and cover with the sauce.

Visit Cool World in NYC and online for more delicious dishes and inspiration.

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