Bringing the Steakhouse Home

Steak au Poivre, perfect for a date night

It's already a week into February, which means Valentine's Day is quickly approaching.  Whether you're single or in a relationship, you can't escape the red & pink decorations, hearts, flowers and chocolate everywhere you look.  Personally, I'm not a huge a fan of Valentine's Day.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy any reason to eat chocolate and get presents, and I love girly things like pink hearts everywhere, but there's something about Valentine's Day that always feels forced.  Which is why I will not go out to dinner on Feb. 14th.  I have no desire to sit in an over-crowded restaurant with couples holding hands across the table, all while eating food that is ridiculously marked up in price for the day.  I much prefer to stay at home with a bottle (or 2) of a good wine and make dinner for Doug and myself. 

Usually, Doug and I make dinner for ourselves almost every night, so for Valentine's Day, I like to surprise him with something new and/or something that we would order out to eat.  While I have yet to decide what I'll be making next week, I wanted to share a recipe I would recommend for a great Valentine's Day in.  Doug had sent me this recipe a while back, but at the time I didn't own a cast iron skillet.  Well, once my parents bought me an awesome Lodge one for Christmas, I was pumped to be able to make Mr. Bourdain's Steak au Poivre.

With the steak recipe, Anthony Bourdain recommends serving with french fries or sauteed potatoes.  I choose the healthier option of sauteed potates.  I simply cubed the potatoes, since dicing them takes a little bit of time, as you cut them, hold them in a bowl of cold water to keep them from turning brown, and then seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika and some parsley.  But you can add whatever seasonings you like!  Then I added them to a warmed saute pan and added a little EVOO.  I don't add to much (like I said, I was aiming to keep it healthier), just enough to coat the potatoes.  Toss them a bit and let them cook until desired doneness.  I personally like mine on the crispier side, so I had them on the stove for a while.  Also, I had halved Tony's recipe because I was only making 2 steaks, but below is the full recipe.  I hope you and who ever you're cooking for enjoy!

Servings: 4

Ingredients4 8-ounce steaks
2 ounces olive oil
2 ounces freshly cracked peppercorns (crushed but not ground to powder!)
4 ounces sweet butter
1 ounce good Cognac
4 ounces strong, dark veal stock (something to keep in your freezer)
Salt and pepper

Equipment
Heavy skillet
Kitchen tongs
Wooden spoon
Serving platter

Instructions for Steak
1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Moisten the meat very slightly with oil, then dredge each of the steaks in the crushed peppercorns to thoroughly coat. Don't be shy with the pepper.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the skillet over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add 2 ounces, which is half of the butter. Place the steaks in the pan and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes per side.

3. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook until desired doneness, about 5 to 7 minutes for rare, 10 minutes for medium rare, and so on. Remove from the oven and remove the steaks from the pan to rest. Have I told you yet to always rest your meat after cooking? I've told you now.

Instructions for Sauce
1. Return the skillet to the stovetop and carefully stir in the Cognac. As much fun as it is to create a column of flame as you add flammable material to an incredibly hot pan, it's not really desirable or necessary — especially in a home kitchen. Unless you're a pyromaniac, I recommend carefully adding the Cognac to the still-hot pan off the flame, stirring and scraping with the wooden spoon to get every scrap, every peppercorn, every rumor of flavor clinging to the bottom of the pan.

2. Now place the pan on the flame again and cook it down a bit, by about half. Stir in the veal stock and reduce over medium heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Whisk in the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with French fries or sautéed potatoes.

Note on searing: With any recipe that calls for searing meat and then using the pan to make a sauce, be careful to avoid blackening the pan; your sauce will taste burnt. Avoid by adjusting the heat to, say, medium high, so it will still sear the meat but not scorch the pan juices. But stoves and pans vary, so pay attention.

Recipe and reviews can also be found here.  FYI - sweet butter is just unsalted butter, I had to look that up to be sure after not finding "sweet butter" in the grocery store.

Steak & potatoes cooking away on the stove