Steak au Poivre with Benson 🥩

markhadland

5 years ago

Prepped ingredients for steak au poivre on a cutting board

A tall Christmas tree with white lights in a round-windowed living room — My Tree 💚🧡🩵

I love Christmas, the weather, the season, the festivities, the family, my trees, thoughtful curated gifts, but most of all, I like the meals. I invited my friend, climbing partner, and colleague over for Steak au Poivre. The tree was up and lit, so we were deep in December. This was one of my famous high-alpine firs – I love how tall it is, and the sparse branches allow for proper display of my curated ornament collection

Mise en place

Everything gets chopped and bowled before the skillet goes on the stove. Shallots, garlic, butter, thyme, a bowl of cracked peppercorns, avocado oil, and a bowl of cognac. I love my MannKitchen pepper grinder for the task – a few years later, my friend Paul Ellington gifted me a pair of Hex Clad pepper and salt grinders; they look great and work even better!

Although this Peugeot pepper mill looks great, it functions so-so. I probably gifted it away.

This was Yuiry’s Armenian cognac, which, once we realized how great it tasted, we drank instead of cooking with it – except for this last steak au proivre.

The Salad Course

Arugula and blueberries, tossed with Dijon mustard, olive oil, and a little chili.

Back to the salad. The dressing is in the glass bowl, with two small dishes of chili sauce next to it.

The Steaks

Three strip steaks go into the cast iron. Add butter and thyme on top, and keep the steaks browning.

Steaks with thyme in the pan, then out onto the board to rest.

The Pan au Proivre Sauce

The skillet does the rest. Shallots go into the fat and butter left behind, then garlic, then more butter and a big pile of cracked pepper. Add cognac, then heavy cream, to loosen everything stuck to the pan, and let the sauce simmer and reduce.