French · Authentic-ish French
Steak Frites
570 kcal a serving, against 943 for the traditional version. That is 373 kcal off, or 40%, with 49g of protein. Serves 4. 45 minutes.
What the traditional version is
A large piece of bavette or skirt steak, flashed in a blisteringly hot pan. A massive mound of potatoes, peeled, cut into thin sticks and deep-fried twice until golden. The steak pan is deglazed with red wine and beef stock, then 100g of cold butter is whisked in to create a thick, heavily emulsified sauce that coats the meat and pools around the chips.
What changed, and what each change costs
1000g of deep-fried potatoes down to 800g of oven chips
Potatoes act like sponges when you drop them into a vat of hot oil. Tossing them in just 15g of olive oil and blasting them in a very hot oven gives you crisp edges without drinking a pint of grease. I also cut the total weight down a fraction. You don't need a massive mountain of chips to enjoy a steak.
What it costs you. They're oven chips. They completely lack that distinct, shattered-glass crunch of a proper double-fried chip, and you'll finish your portion slightly sooner.
100g of butter down to 20g
Whisking a colossal block of butter into a pan sauce gives it incredible flavour, but it sends the fat content through the roof. I use just 20g at the very end to give the sauce a bit of shine and rely on heavily reduced beef stock and shallots for the actual body and depth.
What it costs you. The sauce is distinctly thinner. It won't cling to the meat in a thick, velvety blanket, and it lacks that lip-smacking dairy richness.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 943 | 570 |
| Protein | 50.2g | 49g |
| Fat | 58.2g | 20.6g |
| Saturated fat | 21.2g | 8.3g |
| Carbohydrate | 47.7g | 39g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 5.3g | 8.6g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish French prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. milk, sulphites, celery.
The method is in the book
What you've got is a fast Tuesday night dinner that does what it says. A restaurant sauce is a different dish and you know where to find it. You get the fierce, beefy chew of the skirt steak, a sharp and savoury pan juice, and crisp potatoes to mop it all up. The missing butter is obvious if you're looking for it, but the sharply reduced beef stock brings enough savoury punch that you quickly stop caring. It feels right, and it hits the spot perfectly.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish French, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback