Friday, April 5, 2013

One Great . . . easy steaks with mushroom sauce

I've always agreed with the idea that if you buy good ingredients, you don't need to do much to them. Particularly steaks: At the prices of good beef these days, you don't want to cover it up.

Still, sometimes it's nice to dress up a little for dinner. Looking for a nice dinner at home recently, I pulled out a recipe from an old ad for Alexia frozen potatoes. The only connection to frozen potatoes is that you can serve it with potatoes.

I was sure the method would lead to overcooked steaks, but I decided to trust the force and follow the directions (with a few substitutions -- I grabbed Shaoxing rice wine because I keep it on hand, and I used regular button mushrooms and yellow onion instead of the cremini and shallot in the recipe). The result was a good steak, cooked just right, with a very flavorful sauce.

Ribeye Steaks With Mushroom Sauce
Adapted from Alexia.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in pieces, divided
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 ribeye steaks, about 12 ounces each
2 shallots (or 1/2 of a medium yellow onion), minced
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 cup red wine
1 cup beef or chicken stock
2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons sherry (or rice wine or dry vermouth)

HEAT oven to 500 degrees. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over high heat. Season ribeyes with salt and pepper and sear for 3 minutes per side. Set skillet aside and move the ribeyes to a baking sheet. Place in the oven for 4 minutes, until medium rare. Remove from oven and set aside, tenting loosely with foil.

RETURN the skillet to medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon butter and remaining 2 tablespoons oil and cook the onion for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add red wine; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cook until syrupy and reduced, 8 to 10 minutes.

ADD the stock, reduce the heat slightly and cook 4 to 5 minutes. Stir the cornstarch mixture to make sure it's blended and whisk into the sauce along with the sherry. Bring to a boil until thickened, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the remaining butter. Pour over the ribeyes and serve.

YIELD: 2 servings. 

4 comments:

Carl from Cramerton said...

6T of butter looked like a lot in the ingredient list. But I see that only 2T are used in the recipe. That makes more sense. But I could also see topping each steak with a pat of butter while they're resting.

Carl from Cramerton said...

Speaking of Shaoxing rice wine... I finally found a source for the real thing in Greensboro at Li Ming Global Market on High Point Road at the intersection with Holden Rd. Until now I had been using dry sherry. All I could find before was the salted version of rice cooking wine. What's your source in Charlotte?

Anonymous said...

Only 2 tablespoons of butter? Clearly that's an oversight, Carl. You whisk in the rest at the end. (If you don't want to use it all, no charges will be filed.)

My best source for shaoxing rice wine is Grand Asia in Stallings. I thought it was a nice irony: For years, we used sherry as a substitute for shaoxing. And now shaoxing is easier to find than sherry.

Carl from Cramerton said...

"Remove from heat and whisk in the remaining butter."

Doh! I read and re-read looking for the missing butter and didn't see that line til now. Thanks.