Culinary Disasters

Did you have a stressful day at work?  Do you feel the need to smash something and are on parole and don’t want to go back?  How about light something on fire with reckless abandonment?  If you answered yes to any of these then I have the perfect dish for you. 

I should preface this by saying any good cut of steak will work just fine and is even a good use for the boring and bland filet.  Personally my favorite cut of steak right now is the flat iron which is slowly gaining popularity.  To me the steak has the perfect amount of tenderness and still has a great amount of flavor. 

For this dish you are going to need:

• Couple good steaks
• 3 tb of whole peppercorns
• 1 shallot finely diced
• 1 TB of cognac
• 1/2 cup of dark chicken stock (if you have dark veal stock please please use that)
• TB of canola oil
• 2 TB of unsalted butter
• Kosher salt

About 30 minutes before you are ready to start bring the steaks out of the fridge and let them rest of the counter.  Relax you won’t get sick from this and this step is crucial for uniform cooking.   

First preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Now time to blow off some stress and bash some peppercorns.  Put the whole peppercorns in a plastic bag and taking your favorite cast iron skillet (or mallet) go to town.  We want them to be cracked but not down to powder.

Rub the mixture all over the steaks with a little bit of salt.

Over medium-high heat and in a cast iron skillet melt 1 TB of the butter with 1 TB of the canola.  When it is melted add in the steaks and cook for 3 minutes on the one side.  Flip them and cook for another 3 minutes.  When you first put the steak in you should hear a definate sizzle.  If you don’t hear it remove the steak wait another minute and try again. 

Place the steak in the oven till they a couple minutes before done to your liking (you do remember you have to rest your steaks and there is carryover cooking right?).  For medium-rare I put them in for 8 minutes and the steaks were about 1 inch thick.  Anything past medium well the only option is take your apron and hang yourself for disgracing perfectly good steak.

Once the steak are close to done remove from the oven and place on a plate to rest.

Put the skillet back over medium-high heat and add in the shallot.  Stir around till softened about 2-3 minutes. 

Now the fun fun part and of course I am not responsible if you are a moron and manage to catch yourself or your kitchen on fire.  Remove the pan from the heat, pour in the cognac, return the pan to the heat, and light with a long match or tilt the pan so the juices kiss the gas burner.  Stir around till the flames go out.

Add in the stock, bring to a boil, and boil till reduced by 1/2.

Turn off the heat, add in the remaining TB of butter, and stir around till dissolved.

Serve and enjoy!

Tags: Quick, beef, All //