Take your steaks out to rest all day. The key to cooking a good steak is to make sure 1, they are at room temperature before cooking and 2, to have your pan nice and hot when you do cook them!
Coat your steak in some olive oil when you take it out of the fridge. Let it sit in this until cooking - always oil the steak never the pan.
Prepare your chips (Maris pipers are key here) – first, get your oven on to 200 degrees so it is nice and hot! Chop them into ‘chip shapes’. I leave as much of the skin on as I can because I quite like skin on chips. Try to keep them as similar sized as possible. This means your chips will cook at roughly the same time rather than having some crispier than others when they come out of the oven later, and when they are par boiling.
Par boil the chip chunks in salted water. In terms of timing here, I would say check after 5 minutes every minute by sticking a sharp knife into them. When the chips are just starting to go soft so your knife goes in with ease, drain them and give them a cook shake so the edges go fluffy in the colander (or whatever you have used to drain them). I would say this should be done around 8 minutes in, but it depends on how hot you’ve had your water and how big your chips are.
Once par boiled and drained, place your chips onto a baking tray. I know it is a bit of faff, but this part really is what I think makes these chips amazing - I place each chip on the tray individually and then drizzle olive oil onto the tray. Don't be shy with the oil! Now, ensure each individual chip is coated in the oil using your fingers to make sure they are all coated well on every side and they don’t break up too much. Using a utensil here can sometimes make the chips break up if they are soft.
Once coated, add some salt and pepper to your chips and then put them into the oven. At this point, turn your oven down to 180 degrees so they don't burn as you want them to be nice and fluffy and soft inside, and crispy on the outside.
This is SUPER important! After your chips have been in for 10 minutes and you have checked them and turned them over so to coat them again, check them every five minutes and turn them over each time. This makes sure that the oil is still coating the chips and each side will be nice and crispy. The more you check and turn, the crisper the chip will be.
Around 3/4 way through cooking your chips (when they start to look golden brown), get your steak on to cook! I use a grill pan on the hob and I make sure it is SUPER hot before adding my steak to the pan. You want the steak to sizzle when it hits. I coat the outside of my steak in Maldon sea salt flakes (literally coat it - it creates a delcicious outside to the steak) and some black pepper then add the salted side to the pan and do the same again on the side not touching the pan. I would cook your steaks on each side for around 2.5-3 minutes for a rare-medium rare 6oz steak, depending on how thick your steak is.
Give the sides a little sear on each side for roughly around a minute on each side. When you are happy your steak is done, leave to rest FOR THE SAME TIME YOU COOKED THE STEAK FOR! This is crucial for a good steak!
Once all is done, plate up and enjoy with a large glass of red wine! This is my ultimate date night dinner done properly.