Pub Style Peppered Stilton Steaks With Charred Onions and Chips

Thick rump or Sirloin steaks, encrusted with cracked black peppercorns, pan-fried to collect all the juices, served with a Stilton cheese & toasted walnut topping, with charred fried onions on the side............phew........AND chips (French fries)!!! Interested?! This is a dish I have eaten countless times in numerous local Pubs in the North of England - it has to be my favourite way to eat steak! You don't need anything else, apart from a mixed side salad maybe AND a pint of "real" ale to wash it down with! I have recreated this dish at home - and once you have peeled and sliced you onions and sorted out your Stilton cheese and chips, it's a doddle! I often use "oven" chips, or my Dad's Easy Low Fat Oven Roasted Peppered Potato Wedges which are great with this meal. Try to choose locally produced beef for your steak, and preferably organic. Just for interest, Sirloin steak was named, so the legend says, by King Henry VIII, who having enjoyed it so much, "knighted" the loin of beef on the spot, so loin of beef became SIRloin!!

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 4  ounces Stilton cheese
• 1  ounce  softened butter
• 3  ounces  shelled walnuts, roasted and finely chopped
• 1  tablespoon  cracked black peppercorns
• 2  ounces butter
• 2 (8 ounce)  rump steak or 2 (8 ounce)  sirloin steaks or 2 (8 ounce)  entrecote  steaks
• 1  large onion, peeled and sliced into rings
•  French fries, to serve

Directions

1. Crumble the Stilton cheese into a mixing bowl and add the softened butter and the toasted walnut pieces, mash together well. Cover & set to one side - in a cool place.
2. Press the cracked peppercorns into both sides of the steaks, ensuring they adhere well. Cover and leave to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
3. Take 1 ounce of butter from the 2 ounces of butter, and heat it up over a very high heat in a sturdy frying pan/skillet. Add the onion rings and stir well - allow them to char at the edges before turning down the heat and cooking over a slow heat for about 10 minutes more. Set to one side.
4. 5 minutes before you want to start cooking your steaks, start to fry your chips/French fries - unless you are oven baking them, in which case you need them to be in the oven at least 45 minutes before you want to serve the steaks.
5. Heat up the remaining 1 ounce of butter in a large sturdy frying pan/skillet and as soon as the butter starts to smoke but NOT burn, add you steaks.
6. (Here is a rough cooking chart for you: For steaks about 1" thick, Rare is 3 minutes each side; Medium is 5 minutes each side and Well Done is 7 minutes each side - depending in the thickness of your steaks!).
7. As soon as you have cooked your first side, turn the steak over and crumble half of the Stilton and walnut mixture over the top of each steak, continue to cook until the steaks are cooked to your liking.
8. At the same time that you crumbled the Stilton mixture over the top, add the pre-fried onions and scatter them around in the frying pan to finish cooking them.
9. Serve the Stilton and Pepper Steaks immediately with the charred onions and Chips/French Fries.