I am on spring break this week (hence the coastal vaca...) so I am going to have to really step up the home cooking.
After tearing up Portland for 24 hours, last night was our first night on the Oregon coast.
On the menu:
Grilled flat iron steak with a balsamic reduction sauce, caramelized onions, and a blue cheese sauce. Yes, two sauces because I am just that cool.
Now true, a good steak does not need sauce, but this is to die for and worth the need of taking on a severe eating disorder after consuming every sinful (calorie filled) bite.
sorry veggie friends.
Ingredients:
Flank steak
Balsamic vinegar
Shallots
Red wine
Onion
Butter
Blue cheese
Salt and pepper
Method:
This "recipe" was kind of just thrown together with what we had in the fridge after a trip to the grocery store where we were both starving and came home with a lot of things that needed a little creativity to go together. So, there's probably a much fancier way to make a blue cheese sauce that wouldn't make my teachers at school shudder with disappointment, but this was super easy to make and delicious.
I leave the steak grilling up to the boy.
Make a balsamic reduction. Sauté shallots in a little butter or olive oil. Add a splash of red wine. Reduce to 'au sec.' Add balsamic vinegar (half a cup or so) and reduce to 1/4 cup or until thick.
Caramelize onions. Slow. Slow. Slow.
For the blue cheese sauce I just melted about a tablespoon of butter.... added a little minced onion and garlic, and then added about half a cup to a cup of blue cheese. I kept it over pretty low heat and stirred constantly to keep it from browning on the bottom.
To plate....
Thinly slice the steak and be proud of the cute boy that cooked it to a prefect medium rare.
Balsamic reduction on the bottom. Caramelized onions and blue cheese sauce on top.
We served this with mushroom cous cous and brussel sprouts.
A word on brussel sprouts.
They look like cute baby cabbages, but everyone talks to much crap about them that I didn't even know I liked them until about two weeks ago. They are delicious, healthy, and easy to make.
The stem is very tough.... so cut a small triangle to get rid of the hard part while leaving the leaves intact.
I blanched my brussel sprouts. It keeps them tender and prevents the outer leaves from over cooking or falling off while trying to sauté them.
To blanch:
Place brussel sprouts in boiling water for about 5 minutes until tender, but crisp. Remove and place in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. I sauteed a little garlic in some olive oil and then added the brussel sprouts right before serving them just to warm them up and give them some flavor.
Drink plenty of red wine.
Food Coma.
