Feb
18
Good Evening & Happy Sunday to all….
I’m hungover, happy and sad all at the same time. We had our very first house guest from Toronto. My BF Megan. A short but sweet visit – she arrived late thurs night and I just drove her to the airport an hour ago. She’s off to Van for a conference and gets to stay at a fancy hotel. Lucky! We’ve been friends since university and then lived pretty much across the street from each other for the past 3 years. She’s like a sister to me. It felt like home when she walked through our door. But now the house feels empty – Steve is at work and I’m a little blue. Poor me! As George would say, my bread is sorrow and my drink is tears. But that’s another story!
Anyways…..last night was a blast. She loves to cook and eats like a champ so we had a feast: rib eye steaks (we LOVE meat) with a red wine-shallot sauce. I think she looks pretty pleased
It looks pretty tame in this photo, but we polished off a bowl of shrimp to start and had a big salad with lots of avocado and cucumbers in it. Then we had a slice of pear-frangipane tart and of course some cheese. 3 kinds: Cabrales (a peppery blue from Spain), Belle Anne (local! a washed rind cheese) and a Corsican cheese – think it was called Corsu Vecchio? it was a sheep’s milk one- pretty fantastic. And of course we drank way too much wine and got really silly. So silly that we took a crazy amount of ridiculous pictures and decided to make a CD with our favourite songs (i’ve only recently learned about itunes and how to download)….which when i read the playlist this morning I had to howl: Bee Gees (You Win Again), ABBA (Our Last Summer) and Jeff Buckley (Lilac Wine) to name a few. Very odd mix.
Since it was such a fun evening, I decided to write down my steak recipe – I’ll call it Bifteck Meganno in memory of good times.
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 beef rib eye steaks (about 3/4-in. thick)
Maldon salt
Coarse ground pepper
Olive oil & buttah!
2 shallots, minced
1 cup red wine (+ a little bit more)
1/2 celery stalk, minced
Celery leaves, shredded
And here’s what to do:
Get out your heaviest frying pan. Avoid using non-stick ones if possible, you just don’t get a good sear. Season steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little oil.
Heat frying pan over medium-high heat until hot. Add a knob of butter and a generous splash of oil. Add steaks. Sear about 2 min. per side. Reduce heat and cook another min. on each side. If you like them rare – take out of the pan. Otherwise cook a little longer. I like them on the rare side.
Add shallots and celery to pan. Stir until they start to soften, then increase heat back to high. Add wine. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up and stir in brown bits from pan bottom. Stir often until wine reduces by half. If it doesn’t look like enough sauce add another splash or two of wine.
Live dangerously and stir in a knob of cold butter, then return steaks with any juices to pan. Turn to coat, then plate them up! Pour sauce overtop and sprinkle with celery leaves.
Enjoy!
Goodnight,
jennifer
