Recipe > Mains
Steak with Coconut, Rum and Plantain
This is a light, quick to prepare dish with creamy, exotic flavours.
Serve with the side of your choice

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 x frying steaks
1 Tblsp olive oil
2 x plantains
1 lime, juice of
1 Tblsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic
1 Tblsp fresh ginger
2 spring onions
30ml / 1 fl oz rum
200ml / 7oz coconut milk

Mise-en-Place:
Juice the lime
Chop the ginger and garlic
Slice the spring onions
Slice the plantain, toss through with the sugar and lime

Method:
Heat the oil in a frying pan
Fry the plantain over a medium heat (2 minutes each side to cook through and produce a rich, caramel colour)
Remove the plantain and keep warm
Increase the heat and add the steak
Cook to your preference
(To cook a steak 2cm/ .75inch thick
Blue: approx 1 to 1.5 minutes each side
Rare: approx 1.5 to 2 minutes each side
Medium: approx 2 to 2.5 minutes each side
Well: What are you crazy? Don't be a chump.)
Remove the steak and keep warm
Add the ginger and garlic, cook until lightly brown
Add the spring onions, cook for 30 seconds
Add the rum, stir through
Add the coconut milk, allow to boil and reduce to thicken slightly
Season with the salt and pepper
Serve

Adjust:
Too creamy: Add some more rum, salt and pepper then heat the sauce until it reduces in quantity
Too bland: Add more lime
Tip: The steaks that you have kept warm will have shed some juices, return these to the sauce to increase the flavour!

Presentation:
Cut the steak in a diagonal half
Arrange a circular layer of plantain in the middle of the plate
Place one half of the steak on the plantain
Repeat another layer of plantain, then the remaining steak half, finish with plantain to top it off
Pour the sauce either on top of the piled food or if you prefer, around the plate

Chef Tip:
When you add the rum it might 'flambe' or flame up. Don't worry this is normal. DO NOT PANIC! Continue to stir with a wooden spoon to release the sediment and flavours left from the steak, then quickly add the coconut before the pan evaporates dry.
If you do panic, just step away from the pan, it will burn itself out quickly.
Do not hold onto the frying pan and try to back away at the sight of flames...this will result in you backing away all over the kitchen with the flames still chasing you as in your panic you forgot to release the pan! Very amusing to watch when this happens with younger, inexperienced chefs. I like to crack a beer with my friends, sit back and watch the show when this happens. We might even score points related to scared-face pulling and terrified screams. A perfect 10 is of course only ever issued for singed eyebrows and frantic, chicken-like, squawks of distress.

Chef Insight: What is a plantain?
A plantain is a variety from the banana family. Unlike the banana (which has a high carbohydrate content that converts from starch to sugar during ripening) the plantain doesn't change radically with ripening, resulting in a firm, starchy flesh. Because of this high starch content the plantain is traditionally cooked by frying, mashing or stewing.