Last Updated on November 22, 2020
How to Cook Bavette Steak Sous-Vide.
If you’ve ever looked at cuts of beef like Bavette or Flank Steak and wondered whether to take the risk, I’ll let you into a little secret. With a sous-vide, there really isn’t any risk – although this particular piece of meat can be hard to cook, the sous-vide puts you in complete control. Bavette steak is the French name for flank steak – the long, flat section of meat that runs under the sirloin and loin of the animal. Bavette means bib in French – and as the name suggests, it tends to be a rather flat, lean piece of meat. Without a sous-vide, it’s often marinated and then flash-fried, to avoid drying the meat out. With a sous-vide though, you can use the controlled slow cooking in the water bath to ensure your flank steak or bavette is perfectly tender – then simply brown it off in a frying pan or hot griddle.
If you don’t have a sous-vide, I’d suggest using bavette steak for stroganoff, for a stirfry or to make rather posh tacos if you don’t want to marinate the meat. It’s also a good cut to use in a steak sandwich. You can also use bavette steak in a casserole or slow cooker stew – but that does seem a shame and a bit of a waste of a delicious cut of beef. If you DO have a sous-vide, please try this method of cooking what is a really well-flavoured cut of beef that is sometimes called the ‘butcher’s secret’. I’ve made a mushroom in cream and red wine sauce to go with my sous-vide Bavette steak, but you could make any sauce of your choice – it would pair beautifully with a blue cheese sauce or with peppercorn sauce.
If you want to cook bavette steak sous-vide, you will need zip lock bags or a vacuum sealing system, a sous-vide (mine is the Anova Nano), pepper and salt, butter and oil to finish the steak and your sauce ingredients. For the mushroom sauce, I used ordinary button mushrooms, a good pat of butter, salt, pepper, a glass of red wine and some double cream to finish.
I served my bavette steak with Parmentier potatoes and with roasted asparagus which I popped in the oven for the last 10 minutes of cooking the potatoes. And of course, with the delicious mushroom sauce, which I will be making again to serve with steak, venison and even pork.
I’ve paired this dish with a bottle of Los Olivos Malbec 2018 from Argentina which is a robust, fruity wine with a long finish. I used a glass of the wine in my mushroom sauce – but the rest was the perfect thing to accompany a full-flavoured steak with a rich sauce. Los Olivos Malbec is available from Taurus Wines in Guildford and has an RRP of £11.60. The 2018 which we enjoyed, was the result of a great vintage in the Uco Valley, Argentina and was intensely fruity.
Here’s how to cook Sous-Vide Bavette Steak with mushroom sauce. This produces a medium-rare steak which I believe is the optimum way to serve this cut of meat. Should you prefer medium or well done, simply increase the temperature of your water bath by 2 degrees for medium and by 4 degrees for well done.
A simple way to cook this frugal cut of beef, known as the butcher's secret!
- 300 g Bavette or Flank Steak
- 2 sprigs Thyme
- Salt and Pepper
- 20 g Butter
- 300 g Mushrooms of your choice
- 20 g Butter
- 15 ml Olive oil
- 125 ml Red wine
- 100 ml Double Cream or Heavy Cream
- Salt and Pepper to season
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Season the steak well with salt and pepper and press the thyme sprigs firmly into the meat
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Place in a zip lock bag and use the water dispersion method to create a vacuum or use a vacuum seal system to seal your steak
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Heat the water bath to 54C
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Sous-vide for 2 hours
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Heat the butter in a heavy-based pan till it is sizzling and slightly nutty in colour
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Take the steak from the sous-vide and put it into the frying pan.
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Brown on all sides for just a few seconds (the whole process should take around a minute)
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Leave to rest for 3-4 minutes before slicing across the grain
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While the steak is cooking, slice the mushrooms. 10 minutes before you are ready to serve the steak, start to make the sauce
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Add the oil to a frying pan and then gently saute the mushrooms until they are soft and have slightly caramelised edges
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Add the wine and reduce down until the pan is nearly dry
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Add the butter and melt
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Whisk in the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste
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Serve the steak with the sauce poured over or in a small jug to the side
If you prefer to use a more classic cut of steak, I’ve also made sous-vide fillet steak – which is utterly delicious, but considerably more expensive than bavette or flank steak. I’ll be sharing more sous-vide recipes as I learn more about how my Anova Nano works. In the meantime, why not pin this recipe for later
This sounds like a lovely meal, I definitely need to try it
An excellent way to cook Bavette