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    Steak au Poivre


    Source of Recipe


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    Recipe Introduction


    Red Wine, Red Meat: It's A Natural
    by Jonathon Alsop
    December 2000

    With the holidays closing in, almost every wine in the cellar is in danger
    of finding itself drunk up one of these days. We save bottles of wine for
    some un-named "special occasion," and this time of year is it.

    When friends and family are at home, the fireplace is cranking, and we're
    all enjoying that annual transition to indoor life, I want to hunker down
    with a big red wine, something dense and introspective that requires your
    attention.

    A big red wine requires something else as well, and that's a big piece of
    red meat to make it all complete. In "Wine-Tasters' Logic," a small but
    tremendous book that takes wine tasting to an almost scientific (logical)
    plane, author Pat Simon goes on at some length about the technical
    biochemical reactions between the tongue, the food, and the wine.

    As you might expect, a thousand forces converge to create the sensation of
    this steak au poivre with this Aussie cabernet. At the end of the day,
    however, it's history and nature that make it all work.

    A properly cooked piece of beef with a good red wine is always greater than
    the sum of its parts. It's one of the tidal forces of nature.

    Now that it's too cold to grill outside, I pan fry steaks of all kinds in a
    big cast-iron skillet on top of the stove. There's lots of affordable cast
    iron available at China Fair in Newton Highlands, and sometimes in hardware
    stores, strangely. Cast iron is without a doubt my favorite cooking surface.

    One of the keys to pan frying is to dry the meat thoroughly with a paper
    towel first, and use just a tiny bit of olive oil in the skillet. You want
    to keep the pan hot and dry as you cook.

    The layer of pepper, salt, and herbs encrusting the meat keeps it up off the
    hot surface, so it is possible to get a grilling effect so long as it's nice
    and hot. Turn on the fan, because you should be generating some heat if
    you're doing this right.

    Another key is the right cut of meat. If you like meat rare, you need an
    extremely lean piece of meat, London broil or thick shell sirloin, which are
    tender when rare and tough well-done. If you like it done or well-done, a
    fatter cut is better, since the marbling cooks up as the meat cooks longer.


    Recipe Link: http://www.invinoveritas.com/bestof/redwinemeat.shtml

    List of Ingredients




    Steak au Poivre

    2 1-pound steaks (each about 1 inch thick, London broil is traditional, but
    you favorite steak will work)
    1/2 cup dry red wine
    1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    1/3 cup freshly ground coarse pepper
    1/6 cup coarse salt
    1 tablespoon minced rosemary

    Marinate the steaks in the wine, vinegar and olive oil 1 to 4 hours. Remove
    the steaks and pat them dry with paper towels. Dispose of the marinade.

    Get a very hot grill or cast iron skillet going. Combine the pepper, salt,
    and rosemary. Press the steaks in this mixture and encrust both sides. Make
    certain the steaks are well-covered.

    Grill the steaks 3 to 4 minutes per side until rare/medium-rare. Adjust the
    cooking time to your taste. Serves 4
    Serve with saut�ed greens (broccoli rabe or
    kale) and tiny roasted potatoes.

    Recipe




 

 

 


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