Japanese wagyu steak is incredibly special and best savor little by little, it is the highest butchered Japanese steak. It has a different amount of marbling with a lot of fat on the outside. Depending on the size of your cut and the heat of your pan, this could take up to 3 minutes total to cook both sides. We recommend cutting small slices of your steak so you can get a feel for the perfect preparation as you go, given your particular setup. Trim the fat around the edges, and then, after heating the pan to medium-high heat, use trimmed fat to lubricate the pan. Once the oil starts to smoke, it’s time to cook the steak. Using the extra trim fat will help the fat on your piece of beef stay in place rather than melting onto the pan. If you do this you end up with a juicier steak. Salt the steak a little just before cooking, but not much.

Keep the seasoning very simple with salt and pepper and once rested and at room temparature, begin cooking them up. The most important point when it comes to cooking wagyu beef is the heat. To retain maximum flavor, wagyu beef should not be cooked further than medium-rare. Wagyu beef fat melts at much lower temperatures 77°F (25°C) than the melting point of regular beef. You’ll notice that even handling the meat in your hand sometimes melts the fat. Therefore, if cooked for too long or the heat is too strong, the well-marbled fat simply melts away, losing the outstanding buttery taste. Do not barbecue this steak. Lastly, make sure the steaks are at room temperature prior to cooking.

Ingredients;

  • 1 large sweet potato vegetable oil, for frying
  • 400g Wagyu thick skirt steak, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 medium-sized seeded baguette, cut into two pieces
  • ½ tbsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp spiced tomato chutney
  • 1 pickled beetroot, thinly sliced
  • 1 tomato, sliced
  • 1 onion, sliced and sautéed
  • sprigs of fresh watercress

Instructions;

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
  2. Slice the sweet potato lengthways into batons about the width of your finger.
  3. Heat a little vegetable oil in a frying pan and sauté for about five minutes until nicely colored, then spread them on a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 12 minutes.
  4. Prepare a barbecue for medium heat and season the skirt steak generously with salt.
  5. Grill on both sides for about four minutes each then leave to rest for at least six minutes in a warm place before slicing in half.
  6. Fry the eggs over a low heat so that the white is cooked but the yolks still beautifully runny.
  7. Slice open the two half baguettes and assemble the sandwiches, spreading the bread with mustard then adding chutney, a piece of steak, beetroot, tomato, and onion.
  8. Finish with a tangle of watercress and the fried egg and serve the chips on the side.