Many of you are likely to plan this for supper tonight, because just the thought of a perfect steak with perfect eggs and the steak topped with a fried egg (or two) is enough to get many a palate salivating.

Steak. Egg. Chips. It’s a glorious triumvirate. Three of the best things you can put on a plate, all together. That’s perfection. If…

If the steak is perfectly tender and juicy, not overcooked and dry. If the eggs are beautifully set with the yolk still runny. If the chips are soft in the centre and golden and crisp on the outside.

Everything enhances everything else on the plate. Every element complements every other. Some runny egg yolk on a piece of steak is sensuous and wonderful. I love dipping a salty chip into egg yolk. The caramelisation of the steak and its fat melds with the crispness of the chip and the softness of the egg.

Choosing the steak is important. Look for one that has been aged; brownish colour is better than bright red. Marbled flesh is always good. I prefer a steak with a fat cap, such as sirloin. I also prefer a thicker steak to thinner.

Less time is always best when cooking a steak. Eggs are best fried on a low heat in butter so that the white (albumen) does not form bubbles or brown. Never fry a steak in anything but butter. Chips, well… for that, navigate to my mom’s recipe. Suffice it to say that they need to be soft but crunchy. That’s the key to the best chip. They should never be powdery and lifeless like the awful McCain’s. Why, why, why do so many people like them? A chip can be so much better than those powdery little strips of beige cardboard. Even some restaurants resort to them. It makes no sense. If they’re the best chip you’ve ever had you’ve been sorely deprived.

Not that I have an opinion on these sorts of things.

(Quantities not given. Adapt to the numbers you are feeding)

Ingredients

Sirloin steaks, about 250 g each

Thyme sprigs

Potatoes, as needed

Canola or sunflower oil

Eggs

Butter

Salt

Black pepper

Method

Earlier in the day, salt the steaks lightly all over, press thyme sprigs against the flesh, and refrigerate, uncovered, on a plate. An hour or two before you need to cook them, remove from the fridge and let them stand in a cool spot.

Start with the potatoes, cook the steak while the chips are frying, and only fry the eggs just before serving.

Peel, rinse and dry the potatoes. Cut them into long, narrow strips. Lay them out with space between each one on kitchen paper. Place kitchen paper on top and pat down with your palms. Leave them to dry further while you heat the oil.

Heat plenty of oil in a deep pot into which your chip basket can fit. When it’s 160℃, put chips in a chip basket (not too full, do them in batches) and immerse the basket slowly into the hot oil while moving the basket this way and that for the potatoes to shake loose from one another and be coated in oil. Leave them untouched until they firm up and begin to take on colour. When firm and a pale golden hue, shake and toss the basket vigorously and continue cooking gently. When they are golden and crisp, tip them into a colander lined with double kitchen paper to drain.

Melt butter in a skillet or heavy frying pan and add a dash of oil on a fairly high heat. Don’t worry about the thyme sprigs, they can stay where they are. If there’s a good cap of fat, hold the steaks fat side down with tongs to cook the fat until caramelised first. Then, fry the steaks quickly until caramelised on one side, turn and cook on the other until just done. I prefer medium rare, and I like to take them out of the pan sooner than later. Let them rest while you fry the eggs (the chips should be done by now).

Melt butter in a small frying pan on a low heat. Slip the eggs in carefully on one side with the pan slightly tilted that way. Let them cook undisturbed until the whites are set. Spoon fat over the yolks just to set the upper layer while leaving the yolks inside runny.

Serve chips alongside the steak, topped with an egg (or two). DM/TGIFood

Mervyn Gers Ceramics supplies dinnerware for the styling of some TGIFood shoots.

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

SUBSCRIBE to TGIFood here. Also visit the TGIFood platform, a repository of all of our food writing.