Midweek Dinner - Steak, Sautéed Potatoes & Creamed Spinach

This week traffic has been an absolute nightmare getting to and from work due to roadworks. The last thing I need when my journey home has taken over two hours is to slave away in my kitchen, but I still want to eat well and fancied something a little special so steak came to my rescue!

I feel it's really important to get a good quality of meat as for me, there is nothing worse than a tough/chewy steak! Waitrose and my local butcher never let me down when it comes to their meat and my favourite cut is fillet.

I love my steak blue so the potatoes and spinach were the most time consuming dishes on tonight's menu but still pretty quick, this meal was ready in under half an hour! 

Ingredients: 

• Steak of your choice 
• New/baby potatoes 
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice 
• Salt & pepper 
• Italian mixed herbs (from the frozen section in Waitrose or any herbs of your choice, fresh, dried or frozen)
• 260g spinach 
• 30g unsalted butter
• 1 shallot, very thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed 
• 1 tbsp plain flour 
• 6 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp Philadelphia soft cheese 
• Pinch freshly ground nutmeg 
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan 

Start off by boiling the potatoes. Once these are boiling, season your steaks and set aside.

Once the potatoes are boiled, drain then slice into a thickened of around 2cm.

Add to a hot pain with olive oil then season. Toss the potatoes and season again (I do this quite a few times but mostly with the pepper as you don't want too much salt!).

Add some lemon juice and add more pepper if you like (we love pepper in my household!) and leave on a medium and allow to cook and crisp up. 

You'll need to keep tossing/stirring occasionally as you want both sides of the potatoes to get nice and golden. 

Once the potatoes are golden add your herbs of choice and turn the heat down to low.

Put the spinach in a colander, pour over just boiled water to wilt, and refresh under cold water. Wing out, pat dry on kitchen paper, roughly chop then set aside. 

Heat the butter in a frying pan set over a medium-low heat. Sauté the shallot and garlic very gently for around 8 minutes, until soft. Stir in the flour, cook for 2 minutes. Pour in the milk 1 tbsp at a time, until loose. Store in the soft cheese, until the sauce becomes thick. 

Preheat the grill to high. Stir in the spinach, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, nutmeg and 1 tbsp Parmesan into the sauce; season. Transfer to a small ovenproof dish, sprinkle wth the remaining Parmesan and grill for 2 minutes.

Cook the steak to your preferred "cuisinage" and serve up, bon appétit!