Creamy Mushroom Sauce for Steak

steak on a bed of asparagus with creamy mushroom sauce on top with roast potatoes in the background

5 from 5 votes

Here I share with you some tips for pan frying the perfect steak. I've also got the most gorgeous creamy mushroom sauce recipe to pair alongside!

Prep Time5

Cook Time15

Total Time20

Course: Date Night, Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Author: Chris Collins

Cost: £4 / $5

Equipment

Heavy Duty Pan & Tongs (like a cast iron skillet)
Wooden Spoon
Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
Paper Towels
Jug (for stock)

Ingredients

Steak

2 Steaks of choice, at room temp & patted dry with paper towels (see notes)
1 heaped tbsp Butter
2 small sprigs Fresh Rosemary
2 small sprigs Fresh Thyme
2 cloves of Garlic, skins on & lightly crushed with palm of hand
Olive Oil, as needed
Salt & Pepper, as needed

Creamy Mushroom Sauce

1 cup / 250ml Heavy/Double Cream, at room temp
1/2 cup / 125ml Beef Stock
1/4 cup / 60ml Dry White Wine
1 cup / 100g Button Mushrooms, very finely sliced (see notes)
2 small Shallots, very finely diced
Salt & Black Pepper, to taste

Instructions

Bring steak to room temp, then drizzle with olive oil and give a heavy seasoning of salt & pepper.
Bring a ‘heavy duty’ pan or cast iron skillet to very high temp, then lay down your steaks (pan must be hot!) Don’t push down or move the steak. For medium rare with a steak approx 2cm thick fry for 2 mins, or until the sighting of blood emerges through the upper surface. Then flip and fry for 1min.
Add butter, thyme, rosemary & garlic and baste for another 1min. Remove steaks from pan & leave to rest (important).
Lower temp to medium-high. Add mushrooms & fry for 1-2mins until soft, then add shallots. Fry for another couple of minutes until they pick up colour, then remove herbs & garlic.
Pour in wine & allow to simmer and reduce until it mostly evaporates (important otherwise sauce will be too sour). Pour in stock and cream, then season to taste. Lower heat to medium and simmer until thickened. Before serving you can also stir in any resting juices from the steak, just for extra flavour!

Video

Notes

a) What cut of Steak to use? - Here I used 2x 9oz/250g Sirloins. These were about 2cm thick, so only needed 2mins max on either side to get medium-rare. If you're using a thicker fillet steak, them medium rare would require 3 - 3.5mins on each side for medium rare. If you're looking to cook in any other way just increase/decrease the times accordingly.

b) How to keep the Steak warm? - to ensure the steak doesn’t go cold firstly ensure your mushrooms/shallots are finely chopped so they ‘flash fry’. Also consider very loosely covering with foil, just to contain some heat (but not so tight that they cook further through the centre).

c) Pan Juices - a lot of flavour in the sauce comes from the steak juices, butter, herbs and garlic. So make sure you make it in the same pan.

d) Can I make the sauce without the steak? - You can, you just loose out on a lot of the flavour. If you want to make the sauce ahead of time just start from melting the 1 heaped tbsp butter.

e) Serving Size & Calories - The 2 steaks will of course serve 2, but the sauce would actually stretch to 4. Calories based on the sauce only, with the 1 tbsp of butter, sharing between 4.

Nutrition