Steak Béarnaise with Sweet Potato Straws

Last week I missed out on the chance to hang out at Trailer Food Tuesday in Austin. One of my dreams is to have a food truck and I enjoy visiting as many of them as I can. Since I didn’t make it by there, I went looking online for some different ones I could try.

The Urban Cowboy Southern Fusion caught my eye first because of the name – hello one of my favorite movies ever. Looking through their online menu I decided what I would order and made a goal to head out there on Friday.

Well, Friday rolled around and lo and behold they tweeted that they would now focus on catering and no longer have the food truck. I thought I was being punked. Seriously. At least I know where to go if I need a caterer anytime soon.

You’re probably wondering what this long story has to do with this dish. I’m getting there.

One of the items I was going to order from them was sweet potato straws. I’ve never had them and didn’t even know what they were but they had me at sweet potato. I looked online for what exactly they were and came across this recipe. Since I had never had a Béarnaise sauce either I thought I’d give it a try. It actually came out pretty good. I only had red wine vinegar and red wine on hand (the original recipe called for white on both ingredients) so I can only imagine how splendid it would be with the actual ingredients.

 
Steak Béarnaise with Sweet Potato Straws (Recipe slightly adapted from Huffington Post)

Ingredients:

3 steaks (of your choosing)
Montreal steak seasoning
olive oil
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks
Sunflower oil for deep frying
Salt

For the Béarnaise:

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp red wine
1 Tbsp chives, snipped
2 Tbsp parsley, chopped
3 egg yolks
1 3/4 sticks butter, melted

Instructions:

Season steaks with Montreal steak seasoning then rub them with a drizzle of olive oil. Heat a grill pan until hot. Sear the steaks on both sides and finish cooking in the oven or grill pan.

Heat oil until hot and a piece of sweet potato sizzles when it is dropped into oil. Fry sweet potato matchsticks in oil then drain on a paper towel covered plate. Sprinkle with salt and a small bit of parsley.

For the Béarnaise:

Add red wine vinegar, red wine, chives and 1 Tbsp of parsley to a saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce until you have around 1 Tbsp of liquid. Cool in the pan.

Bring a smaller pan filled with water to a simmer. Whisk the egg yolks then add to the liquid reduction. Place the saucepan over the summering water and whisk until sauce thickens. Add the melted butter in a steady stream and continue whisking. Add the remaining parsley and whisk together.