Steppe grass

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A steppe grass can be recognized by the large pile of fries and the lemon wedge with caviar.

Steppe grass is a dish that is found on the menu especially in the cuisine of Flanders and the south of the Netherlands . It is a variant of the biefstuk-friet (fillet of beef with french fries ). A special feature is the large pile of thin fries on the plate.

The name steppe grass was legally protected in 1980 by the chef Jean Ceustermans in Antwerp . Restaurants that want to sell steppe grass therefore have to pay a license and offer the dish as follows: a piece of meat, covered with a good portion of sauce , covered with a large pile of thin fries and rounded off with a lemon wedge with caviar.

In some restaurants you can order a normal portion of thin fries under the name steppe grass. Because of the popularity of the dish, several shops have gotten a taste for it and are circumventing the trademark law by selling it under a different but similar name.

history

Steppe grass was created in the late 1960s based on an idea by head chef Jean Ceustermans. It was intended as a variant of the Belgian classic biefstuk-friet . At that time he worked at the Hotel Quellental in the German city of Bielefeld . Since the famous Russian clown Oleg Popov stayed in the hotel at that time, the dish was called steppe grass of the taiga.

Ceustermans only had real success with the dish after he came back to Belgium in 1970 and opened a restaurant in Leopoldsburg . The city was a military base and many young people doing military service stopped here to eat after a pub crawl. Steppe grass met her taste.

When the conscripts returned home, they remembered the name of steppe grass. The name generally thought of a pile of thin fries.

preparation

Steppe grass should have three components: the meat, the sauce, and the fries.

  • The choice of meat is free: beef fillet (Dutch biefstuk ), chicken fillet or schnitzel .
  • The sauce is slightly spicy and is based on paprika , pickles and pickled onions . The exact recipe of the original steppe grass sauce is a secret.
  • The potatoes must be cut thinner than fries and thicker than chips (about four millimeters). They are fried before and after so they're crispy in your mouth but soft enough that they don't break on your fork.

Real steppe grass is rounded off with a lemon wedge with caviar . So that the dish doesn't become too expensive, the caviar is often replaced with other fish eggs.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Marnix Peeters: 'Nobody likes mijn steppe grass namaken' ( nl ) Vlaams infocentrum agricultural en tuinbouw. December 30, 2008.
  2. ↑ Felicia Alberding: Hoe de enorme frietschotel van een overleden Belgian chef voortleeft ( nl ) Vice. 29th September 2016.