Saturday Night Steak Dinner

John's getting ready to take his medical school boards (step 2) on Tuesday- so I wanted to distract him from studying with a nice Saturday night steak dinner. He's been studying so hard, it was definitely time for a break! I picked up filets from the New York Butcher Shop which we love. When you step into the store, its like being teletransported to New Jersey. The store is not big but the guys have the best cuts of meat, homemade sausages, delicious handmade ravioli, a very nice but not huge wine selection, and GREAT subs with all of the real Italian deli meats you could think of. They make a great steak seasoning rub too- similar to a montreal seasoning but even better. They season the steaks for you after they cut them which is nice.

So the filets were ready to go, I decided to serve them with some sauteed spinach, garlicky green beans, roasted yukon gold potatoes and grape tomatoes- a fairly traditional steakhouse menu I'd say. John absolutely refuses to eat a steak without sauteed spinach- its his favorite.

I peeled three yukon gold potatoes and cut them into chunks. I then seasoned them with some olive oil, minced garlic, fresh rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper- spread on a baking sheet and placed in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I drizzled 1 cup of whole grape tomatoes with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper in a bowl.

As soon as the timer went off on the potatoes, I gave them a shuffle around the pan, pushed to one side of the baking sheet and added the tomatoes to the other side. Back into the oven for 12 minutes.

While those finished- I started some olive oil and 2 cloves of minced garlic in a non-stick pan. Then added some haricot verts (french green beans) to the pan, seasoned with s&p and cooked about 5 or 6 minutes. My garlic was getting brown so I pulled it off the heat and transferred to a serving dish and covered with saran wrap. The beans needed cooked a tad more so I finished in the microwave - about 2 minutes- before serving. I then added a swirl more of olive oil to the same pan, and wilted 1 bag of baby spinach with some salt and pepper. I hit it with a splash of balsamic vinegar right at the end. I set the spinach in a bowl to the side, covered with foil to keep warm.

About this time- my timer went off on the potatoes and tomatoes. I removed them from the oven but left it on at 400 degrees. Now for the steaks! For filets, my preferred method is to sear them in a cast iron skillet and then finish in the oven. It ensures that you get a nice crust without over cooking. The grill just doesn't get hot enough to get a nice crust AND a medium rare temperature. So I put the skillet on med-high (closer to high) head for 2 minutes or so until really hot. I added a little bit of olive oil and then the steaks. I cooked about 2-3 minutes on one side, flipped them over, gave them 2 minutes more and then placed the whole skillet into the oven for about 3 minutes. Our steaks were approx 1.5, maybe close to 2 inches thick and they were PERFECTLY medium rare - if I do say so myself.

I made a garlic blue cheese butter to put over the top of the steaks and I think it REALLY pushed it over the edge to YUMMY. I used maytag blue- almost equal parts blue cheese to softened butter (about 2 tablespoons of each) and one garlic clove, pressed. Added a bit of salt since my butter was unsalted and some fresh cracked pepper.

I plated the steaks with a schmear of the blue cheese butter on top- placed a little pile of each of the vegetables around the plate. It all came together very very nicely and QUICKLY too! The tomatoes are on the verge of bursting and they make a delicious sauce almost as you eat everything.

So the steaks were a great excuse for a good bottle of red wine- and a good bottle of red wine is a great excuse for CHOCOLATE. So for dessert- we made molten chocolate cakes! I'm realizing as I write this that this was quite the decadent meal and therefore I really need to make it to the gym today....

Anyways- I actually made the cake batter earlier in the evening and then I had the ramekins in the fridge so that we just had to pop them into the oven after dinner. I used a recipe from my Gourmet cookbook and it was amazing. I melted 3.5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate with almost one stick of butter (I used about 1 T of the stick to butter and sugar the individual ramekin dishes). I set that aside to cook while I whisked together in my mixer 3 eggs with 7 tablespoons of sugar. I then added 1/3 cup flour, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 tsp vanilla and the chocolate mixture until combined. I filled 6 small ramekins with the batter. They baked at 400 degrees for about 14 minutes. I watched for the edges to look cooked but the centers still soft. Inverted them into plates, topped with vanilla ice cream and then devoured alongside the last of the red wine.

Speaking of the wine-we found a fantastic inexpensive bottle at Costco. I recently decided to sample a random selection of 6 or 8 bottles of wine, all $12 or less from Costo. All of them have been great so far- this one was called Palo Alto- it is from Chile and its a blend of cab (55%), carmenere (30%) and syrah (15%). It had a sticker on it that said it got 88 pts from Wine Spectator. It was $10 I think and turned out to be amazing! I'm definitely going to go buy more while its still there- great find!