My Bristol Recipes: The Kensington Arms’ perfect steak

Having now visited the Kensington Arms, known affectionately by locals as the Kenny, I am rightly ashamed that I never paid the pub a visit when I lived round the corner on Chandos Road.

To think of all the roasts I missed out on. It almost doesn’t bear thinking about.

Fortunately I have now rectified the considerable gap in my restaurant resume and gone one better than just eating at the Kenny; I learnt how to cook the perfect steak in their kitchen.

There are few better places to learn how to cook the perfect steak than the Kenny, which has recently undergone a light-touch rebrand to reflect its move towards a chophouse and grill.

There are also few better people to learn from than Oscar Davis, who has spent four years at the Kenny and, before that, five years at the acclaimed Yurt Lush.

Chef Oscar Davis has had an illustrious career in Bristol and Welsh restaurants to date

Oscar started his cooking career at the tender age of 15.

“I was a toast boy at 232 bistro on Gloucester Road which involved microwaving beans and making toast. Since then I’ve worked with some great chefs in Bristol.

“The Kenny has changed a little bit but is still very much a gastropub. We’re offering really good quality ethical meat, cooked over coals and good seafood like we’ve always done. It’s just elevated pub dining really”.

Today we’re cooking the perfect steak, which is a Hereford dry aged rib of beef with a pan sauce, served with a radish, watercress and orange salad.

Ingredients

• Rib of beef, or another good quality, ethically sourced steak that has been out of the fridge for an hour to come up to room temperature. Weight should depend on the number of people eating!
• 100g butter
• Two tablespoons Dijon mustard
• One tablespoon green peppercorns in brine (you can use dried peppercorns, but the brined ones are delicious and available in most supermarkets)
• 100g diced pancetta
• One teaspoon ground white pepper
• One tablespoon of chopped chives
• A bulb of roasted garlic
• Five tablespoons reduced beef stock
• 20ml brandy
• 150ml double cream
• Two large handfuls of watercress, washed
• Whole orange segments and juice
• Three radishes, sliced
• 120ml olive oil
• One teaspoon sugar
• One tablespoon cherry vinegar (or substitute another fragrant vinegar)

Oscar’s ingredients were neatly prepped in advance

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Start by getting a non-stick cast iron pan smoking hot on the hob.

While the pan is heating up, season the steak liberally with a lot of salt and a little pepper.

Brush a little oil onto the fatty side of the steak, and put that side face down in the hot pan, pressing it firmly to create a good contact.

When the fat is a nice golden brown colour, and has partially melted into the pan, sear the steak on the other sides.

Each side of the steak should be this golden brown colour once it has been seared

With each sear, we are waiting for the Maillard reaction to happen, which is when the proteins in the meat reach a temperature of 130-140 degrees and that creates a nice flavour.

Sear each side until golden brown – approximately four minutes per side for this steak, which weighs a kilo.

While searing the last side, add 100g butter into the pan and cook until foaming. Add one bulb of roasted garlic cloves and baste the steak in the garlic butter.

Now put the whole pan into the oven for five minutes. After five minutes, turn the steak onto the other side and return to the oven for a further five minutes.

Once the steak is removed from the oven, it needs to rest. As a rule of thumb, Oscar recommends resting it for as long as you’ve cooked it. Pour the butter over the resting steak, but leave any sticky residue in the pan to aid the sauce.

While the steak is resting, make the pan sauce.

Put the pan back on the hob on a high heat, and add the pancetta. Fry until crisp.

When the pancetta is starting to crisp, add a teaspoon of ground white pepper, which will bring depth of flavour to the sauce.

Add 20ml of brandy and carefully light with a lighter to flambe and burn off the alcohol.

Be careful doing this at home!

When the flames have gone out, add beef stock and a tablespoon of dijon mustard. The sauce should be simmering at this point.

Simmer until the viscosity of the sauce is just so that drawing a spatula through it creates a brief parting.

Add 150ml double cream and turn the heat down.

Once the cream is added, the sauce is almost finished

For the salad dressing, mix a tablespoon of dijon and a tablespoon of vinegar in a bowl with the juice of half an orange.

Whisk and gradually add 100ml of olive oil until it emulsifies. Add a teaspoon of sugar and whisk until incorporated.

Back to the sauce – add green peppercorns and fresh chives and mix in. Take off the heat.

Green peppercorns have shot straight to the top of my shopping list

The steak should now be rested and ready to carve. Cut off the bone and slice the meat, before pouring over the sauce.

Combine the watercress, sliced radish and orange and dress with the salad dressing and serve alongside.

Et voila, steak a la Kenny!

The steak is served sliced with the sauce poured over the top

The steak is exemplary, but it is the sauce recipe that I have fallen in love with. This is the kind of sauce that would be famed in families, passed down from generation to generation. Make it and everyone who tastes it will be lauding you as the next big thing. As I left the Kenny, back into the Redland rain, I had half a mind to go home and immediately make it again for dinner.

I’ll be back for Sunday lunch as Oscar performed mightily well when I grilled him on the inclusion of a Yorkshire pudding with every meat and cauliflower cheese as standard. I may have missed out on the Kenny when I was a local, but I shall certainly be a regular from now on.

If you make this, I’d love to see pictures! You can send me photos, questions and ideas for features on Twitter via @meghoughtongilm or on Instagram @meghoughtongilmour.

All photos: Meg Houghton-Gilmour

The Kensington Arms, 35-37 Stanley Road, BS6 6NP

www.thekensingtonarms.co.uk

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