Steak Rossini was one of the first proper dining experiences I had as a youngster and the memory of the sheer audacious richness of the dish has always stayed with me. I mean, pimping a steak by wrapping it in bacon, laying it on a bed of liver and brioche and then drenching it in a rich Maderia sauce is fairly indulgent right? Yes! So this is a FatSteak take on fine dining.

Step 1 - the sauce

• Preheat the oven to 200°C.

• Make beef stock by roasting the meaty bones and oxtail in the oven until just browned (around 30 min).

• In a large pan, brown the cut side of the onion over a high heat on the the dry base until nearly burnt.

• Add 3 litres of water to the pan. Place the herbs and spices in a small muslin bag and add followed by the carrots, celery, dried mushrooms and garlic. Add the contents of the roasting pan and bring to a gentle simmer.

• Cook for 3 hours, skimming every 30 minutes or so. After 1 hour add one portion of the Maderia and the soy sauce.

• Ladle the finished stock through a muslin cloth. Reserve half a litre for the recipe and freeze the rest for other recipes.

• To make the Rossini sauce, finely chop the shallot and soften in the butter. Add one portion of the Madeira and cook until reduced to a sticky glaze.

• Add the half litre of beef stock and reduce to a gravy consistency.

Step 2 - the steak

• Let the fillets reach room temperature.

• Wrap a rasher of bacon around each fillet, holding in place with butcher’s string.

• Heat some butter in a large frying pan on a high heat until foaming. Add the steaks and sear each side for 3 minutes then leave to rest. The bacon should have almost shrink-wrapped itself around the fillets and the string can be cut off at this point.

• In the same pan, toast the brioche on each side until golden before transferring to a warm serving plate.

• Liberally coat the brioche with the pate (Top Tip: classically Rossini is done with a foie gras for this part, but on welfare grounds I replaced with a chicken liver pate with some truffle).

• Place the fillet on the pate coated brioche and drizzle with the sauce to serve.

 Ingredients

• ~500g Meaty beef bones

• 1 Oxtail piece

• Half a peeled large onion

• 5 Sprigs parsely

• 5 Sprigs thyme

• 10 Fennel seeds

• 10 Black peppercorns

• 2 Carrots

• 2 Sticks celery

• 10 g Dried mushrooms

• Half a garlic bulb

• 250ml of Maderia (in 125 ml portions)

• 125 ml of Soy sauce

• 1 Banana shallot

• 20g Butter

• 2 Fillet steaks

• 2 Rashers streaky bacon

• 2 Slices of brioche

• 50g of liver pate to your taste