T-Bone Steak with Mustard and Caper Sauce

‘I like T-Bone steaks, because they are in the shape of Africa.’ – Desmond Tutu

WHAT YOU NEED

(Feeds 4)

4 T-bone steaks
salt and pepper

For the Sauce

1 onion
1 tot butter
2 tots brandy
1 cup fresh cream
2 tots dijon mustard
2 tots wholegrain mustard
2 tots capers
salt and pepper

WHAT TO DO

Make a very big fire. Bigger is in fact better.
Make the sauce: Finely chop the onion. In a pan, melt the butter and fry the onion. Add the brandy and let most of the alcohol cook off. Add the cream, mustards and capers, and stir. Sample the sauce, and add salt and pepper to taste. How you want to play this is to let the sauce simmer very gently while you braai the steak, and until you are happy with the consistency.
Take the steak out of the fridge 30 minutes before the braai so that it can come to room temperature. Remove the steaks from their packaging, wash them under cold running water, pat them dry with kitchen paper and use a sharp knife to trim away all excess sinew and fat that you don’t like the look of. At the time of writing this book I preferred to salt my steaks before the braai, so by my current view now is the time.
Braai the T-bone steaks for between 8 and 10 minutes on very hot coals and turn them only once. If you’re wondering whether your coals are hot enough, they aren’t! Although you should turn steaks on the braai once only, the shape of the T-bone steak does allow you one extra trick – if you’d like to make use of it, you can stand the steaks upright on the flat bone part for the final few minutes on the braai. That back side of the bone tends to burn black quite easily, but that’s not a crisis, as you’re not going to eat the bone in the first place.
Once the steaks are braaied, put them straight onto each guest’s plate and dress with the sauce. Quality steak knives make the eating of T-bone steaks significantly easier and will make the same steak braaied in the same way appear a much better piece of meat compared to eating with inadequate knives, so bring out the heavy guns when setting the table for this meal.