Grilled Steak With Sauce Gribiche Recipe

[Photograph: Blake Royer]

Gribiche is a classic French sauce, but that doesn't mean anyone can agree on how it's properly made. It always seems to have egg in some form, that's a given—as well as plenty of herbs, oil, vinegar, and some piquant mix-ins like capers or cornichons. Some say it's a relative of tartar sauce (or the fancier French version called remoulade) in that it's basically a mayonnaise with a nice acidity and mix-ins, but others say the thing that sets it apart is that the egg is hard-boiled. Since the raw egg yolk is what emulsifies a mayonnaise, the hard-boiled version is a little less uniform, and the bits of egg white give it an appealing texture.

I like the way the Zuni Cafe Cookbook (from which this recipe is adapted) handles things: by splitting the difference with a soft-boiled egg. After just 4 minutes, the egg's white is congealed but the yolk is still relatively raw; this means you still get the texture from the hardened egg whites, but the yolk is still runny enough to give it a good emulsion. From there it's pretty versatile--it would make a marvelous base for a potato salad, or spooned onto pretty much anything off the grill, especially asparagus. Admittedly, it's pretty decadent on a steak, and I devoured this at 11 p.m. But my wife is out of town and that means I eat whatever I couldn't normally get away with.