January 12

Steak Dinner

Menu

• Four Peppercorn Steak with Red Wine Sauce [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 4 11-ounce steaks
  • 1 tablespoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon oil (divided)
  • salt
  • 1 tablespoon shallot (minced)
  • .25 cup wine (dry red)
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons cream

  Instructions

  We start by removing the steaks from the fridge about half an hour before we want to begin cooking them. Meanwhile, we prep all the ingredients.

  We start by putting the black, white, green, and pink peppercorn blend in a resealable plastic bag and crushing them with a mallet. We want coarse peppercorns to sprinkle on the steaks. We mince our shallot and get the other sauce ingredients ready. We pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.

  We heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. We sprinkle the coarse pepper on one side of two of the steaks. We sprinkle them with salt. When the pan is hot, we add ½ tablespoon of olive oil and when it is smoking, we put in the two steaks, pepper-side down. We sprinkle the other side of the steaks with salt. We cook over medium heat for 4 minutes, turn, and cook for another 3 minutes or so. We remove the steaks from the pan and set aside on a clean dinner plate as we get the other two steaks into the pan with the rest of the olive oil. We check the cooked steaks with our thermometer. We want the internal temperature to be at least 120 degrees for rare or 130 degrees for medium-rare. The first two steaks are done perfectly. We cover with aluminum foil as we wait for the other steaks and the sauce. When the other two steaks have been in the pan for 7 minutes, we remove them to another clean plate. These are thicker and more on the rare side so we put them on a cookie sheet into the pre-heated oven for just a few minutes and check again. When the steaks are cooked to perfection, we remove them to let them rest for 5 minutes while we prepare a quick red wine pan sauce.

  We begin to saute the shallots in the pan drippings, scraping up some of the browned bits. After a minute, we add the red wine. After boiling it for 30 seconds, we add the water. We boil this for a few minutes to concentrate the flavor. Lastly, we add the cream and cook until it thickens to a nice consistency. Then we add any jus (juice) accumulated on the plates the steaks are resting on. We adjust the seasoning to taste and serve the sauce in little prep bowls for dipping.

• Bibb Lettuce with Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Baked Potato with Sour Cream and Chives