Advice sought re SV pepper Steak for Crowd. I have been tasked with hosting family XMAS dinner and will be serving 24+ people. Request was made for pepper steak. Normally I do a traditional treatment: season filet with very course black pepper, pan sear in clarified butter, flambe, remove steak, make sauce with cream, small amount dijon, and of course green peppercorns. My idea was to avoid any timing issues and having to sear multiple steaks on the stove, to SV them all in advance and for fun, rather than sear on gas grill or pan, to try and sear them on a Tuscan Grill that I have set up in my fire place. The fireplace is open on all sides located in the kitchen dining area. Grill is big enough to hold probably 8-12 steaks at a time. Pepper sauce to be made in advance and served restaurant style in "gravy boat".
My questions are:
1) Should I still use coarse pepper before placing in bags? I have read different views on whether you should use pepper in SV bag as this can create some off flavours. And whether I put pepper on pre or post SV, should I be concerned that searing on an open flame I will just burn the pepper? (This has never been an issue when pan searing traditional style in clarified butter).
2) How concerned should I be making pepper sauce without having the scrapings or juices from pan searing as I wasn't planning on pre searing before placing in SV bag. Should I use the juices from the bags (with or without reducing depending on volume produced) and add to pre-made cream based pepper sauce? suggestions on making the cream sauce in advance and holding?
Hopefully there are some caterers out there with suggestions! Thanks in advance.
