Beef Fillet Steak with Pepper Sauce

Prepare the sauce

• 1
  Dry roast the green peppercorns in a small pot over medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Deglaze with white wine, reduce the heat, and cook the peppercorns until soft and the wine has almost completely reduced.
• 2
  Remove the pot briefly from the heat, add the cognac, return to the stove, and let the cognac reduce almost completely as well.
• 3
  Add the demi-glace, reduce the heat to one-third, and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and cook for another 4 minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt to taste, and gradually stir in 40 g of the cold, diced butter. Keep warm.

Prepare and fry the steaks

• 1
  Remove the meat from the refrigerator 1 hour before preparation. Cut into 4 equally sized steaks, season with salt and pepper on all sides. Rub the steaks all over with 2 tbsp of oil. Preheat the oven to 160 °C.
• 2
  Heat a heavy pan (preferably cast iron) until very hot. As soon as it lightly smokes, add 1 tbsp of oil. Place the steaks in the pan (they should not touch) and sear for 1.5 minutes. Flip and fry for another 1.5 minutes. Do not move the meat during this time!
• 3
  Add another 1 tbsp of oil and briefly brown the sides of the steaks (approx. 30 seconds per side).

Finish and let rest

• 1
  Place the steaks on a baking sheet (spaced apart). Insert a meat thermometer into the center of the thickest steak. Cook in the oven for approx. 8 minutes until an internal temperature of 51 °C is reached.
• 2
  Remove from the oven, place a piece of the remaining butter (20 g total) on each steak, and let rest in a warm place for 8 minutes. The target internal temperature for medium is approx. 58 °C.
• 3
  Briefly warm the sauce. Turn the steaks in the melted butter juices and arrange on warmed plates. Drizzle with some sauce, serve the rest separately.