Bife à Portuguesa (Portuguese Steak with Garlic Wine Sauce and Fried Egg)
- Prep
- 15 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Servings
- 2
- Calories
- 580 kcal
Few dishes sum up Portuguese tasca cooking like bife à portuguesa: a well-seasoned steak, a garlic and white wine sauce made in the same pan, and a fried egg on top (“a cavalo”, on horseback). It’s on almost every set lunch menu, from the corner café to the neighborhood restaurant, because it’s quick, cheap and very satisfying.
Unlike bife à marrare, tied to the Lisbon restaurants of the 19th century, bife à portuguesa is an everyday dish.
Recipe
Bife à Portuguesa
Beef steak fried with garlic, bay and white wine, with a fried egg on top and fried potatoes. A tasca classic, simple and comforting.
Ingredients
Method
- 1Season the steaks with salt, pepper, the bay leaf torn into pieces and the crushed garlic cloves.
- 2Fry the potato rounds in very hot oil. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.
- 3In a wide frying pan, heat the olive oil and butter. Add the steaks and fry them on both sides.
- 4Move the steaks to a plate. Pour the white wine into the same fat and let it bubble to make the sauce.
- 5Meanwhile, fry the eggs in another pan.
- 6Return the steaks to the pan with the sauce for a minute.
- 7Serve the steaks with the sauce poured over, topped with the fried egg and with the fried potatoes on the side.
Tips
Don’t rush the sauce: after taking out the steaks, let the white wine reduce well in the fat in the pan. That’s where the flavor is.
For a creamy yolk, fry the egg over medium-low heat and take it out as soon as the white is set, after 2 to 3 minutes.
Besides fried potato rounds, white rice or a green salad balance the richness of the sauce.
