Occasional cooks: Café de Paris sauce

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Via Good Food

I had steak this weekend, which lead to me reminiscing about the last meal I had out before the pandemic. It was for my birthday, and it was that time in March 2020 where we knew the pandemic was coming, but nothing was officially closed yet. Still, there was a feeling that we shouldn't really be going out to eat anymore.

We went to a French restaurant, and I had a delicious steak, but two and a half years later, I couldn't remember what the sauce was. Luckily for me, if not them (dark), the restaurant did not survive the pandemic, and their website remains frozen with the menu from that time. I had bavette (flank) with Café de Paris sauce.

This sauce actually comes from Switzerland, from the Café de Paris in Geneva. It is traditionally a sauce of emulsified butter, but all the recipes I've found make it as a compound butter, which means you can cut it up and freeze it - far more practical for having at home.

Go big and find yourself some fancy French butter. Soften the butter, finely chop all the other ingredients and stir in:

• tarragon
• parsley
• shallot (finely diced)
• Dijon mustard
• crushed garlic
• capers
• anchovies
• Worcestershire sauce
• grated lemon rind
• paprika
• curry powder.

Here's the recipe I found that best matches with my memory of that meal. 

Some of the recipes also added some vermouth, which definitely feels right, although not something I feel like buying for the sake of a single spoonful in a sauce! (I know vermouth as something we drank as teenagers because our parents had it in their drinks cabinets. Definitely not the way it is intended to be used, and definitely not a fond memory).

The fanciest recipe also whipped the butter first, but that feels like a lot of work.

I know some people think any kind of sauce on steak is sacrilege , but I guarantee this one is worth it.