Beef Escalopes in Green Peppercorn Sauce

This dish is striking in its simplicity. Look: really just 6 ingredients (plus frying oil and salt). Simple, primitive. And yet it charms you with its brilliance. The deep flavour of beef, enhanced by the outstanding aroma of green peppercorns. A little spicy, a little mysterious, very distinctive on the palate. Tasting beef escalopes in green peppercorn sauce is, no joke, pure magic.

Tender beef, almost as fragile as ice that has somehow survived on a lake until the end of April. Alongside it, green peppercorns: delicate yet fierce, moderately spicy, wrapped in a delicate sauce based on red wine and… cream.

This dish really is easy to make. It just takes a little more time, although it practically cooks itself. So I recommend it as enthusiastically as the current leaders of the Modern party recommended Swiss-franc loans a good few years ago. After all, this dish is typically Fran… French 🙂

Recipe at a glance:

Preparation time: 2.5 hours

Serves: 2 people

Calories: well-pounded calories

Ingredients for beef escalopes in green peppercorn sauce:

• 450 grams beef (I bought mine already cut into about 5 medium-sized steaks)
• 1 glass dry red wine (I had an exceptionally good, inexpensive red Douro Paco Do Monsul, a Portuguese wine you can buy at Biedronka)
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3 – 4 teaspoons green peppercorns in brine
• 2 – 3 tablespoons 18% cream (for sauces and soups)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• coconut oil (for frying)
• salt

Recipe for beef in a fantastic green peppercorn sauce:

I washed the beef and dried it with paper towel (mine was already cut into medium-sized steaks; if you have a whole piece, cut it into medium-sized but fairly thin steaks). I pounded each piece with a meat mallet (not as vigorously as you would pork schnitzels, but with a bit of style, so the neighbours could hear ;). I seasoned it with freshly ground black pepper (quite generously on both sides) and salt.

I heated coconut oil in a frying pan (ideal, supposedly healthy and almost odourless, and suitable for high temperatures). I laid all the pieces of beef side by side. I fried them for roughly 3 – 4 minutes on each side, until they took on some colour (and were no longer blood-red). Then I poured half a glass of red wine into the pan and added a teaspoon of green peppercorns in brine (whole peppercorns, of course). I let it cook briefly in the uncovered pan, then turned down the „heat” and put a lid on.

I braised the beef like that for about 2 hours, checking from time to time that there was still wine in the pan. After roughly half an hour, I added half a glass of water. After another hour, I added the remaining wine. I covered it again for 15 minutes, but for the last 15 – 20 minutes of cooking I took the lid off so there wouldn’t be too much „water” in the pan.

Once some of the wine and water had evaporated and the beef was tender and soft (you really must check), I transferred the meat to a plate, leaving just the little beef „broth” and some green peppercorns in the pan. I added another two teaspoons of green peppercorns from the brine, 3 tablespoons of cream and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard. I added a little salt and mixed thoroughly to make a creamy sauce. Voilà. Done. I served the beef on a plate with green beans and gnocchi (they’re delicious with the sauce poured over them), or with a simple tomato salad instead of the green beans. Enjoy!