I love a well cooked steak, and when a friend of mine who was a chef taught me how to properly cook a steak in a cast iron pan, my world changed forever. As you can no doubt tell by this blog, I’ve finally learned how to make reductions and am using them a lot. This recipe had a very simple wine and shallot reduction made in the pan the steak was cooked in as it rests.

Whole Foods now stocks aged steaks, something I’ve never cooked but have torn apart at steakhouses for years, needless to say I was excited to sear this baby up.

I had recently stumbled upon Gordon Ramsay’s video for how to properly cook a steak, so I used some of his techniques including basting it with a butter wash when it was nearly done and slicing it diagonally and thick. Really keeps the juice in to and gives it a buttery steakhouse feel to boot.

Per an earlier post, I finally broke down and bought a Slap Chop and used it to mince a few shallots. Turns out that so far it works great and is easy to clean. You win this one Vince.

After I seared off the steak, I set it aside to rest while I made the Russian Skillet Fries. I first learned you could make delicious fries in a pan without any real frying from my wonderful fiancee Alexandra, and I called her up to get the skinny on how to make these, it was really simple and the result was terrific.

After cutting the fries into thin cubes (about 3mm square), Alex told me to parboil them for about 2 minutes, and then drop them in a wide pan with a base of oil thick enough to cover the bottom. The pan should be hot enough that the oil is smoking a little bit.

This process requires turning all the fries delicately with a spatula for about eight minutes until they look a little bubbly and brown on the outside. After sprinkling with sea salt they were on par with delicious Belgian fries:

Finally, I used the hot pan that cooked the steak, sizzled some shallots for about 30 seconds and added in some red wine.

After boiling that off a bit I added in some chicken stock (I was out of beef stock) and reduced until it was nearly a syrup and poured over the sliced steak:

The cost of ingredients was almost nothing (other than the cost of the steak which was $17) and the fries only cost one potato and the result was terrific, fresh and dripping with goodness.

Alex’s Skillet Fries

Ingredients

Several Russet Potatoes

Two tablespoons of cooking oil (vegetable or olive will work)

Directions

1. Cut the potatoes into thin McDonalds sized strips.

2. Drop in salted boiling water for two minutes, then scoop out and put on paper towels to dry them before pan frying.

2. Drop in a wide pan with hot oil around the smoking point.

3. Let brown for a few minutes, turn, repeat.

4. When they look good to you, put them in some paper towels to soak up the oil, let sit for a few minutes and dust with some coarse sea salt.

21-Day Aged Steak, Red Wine Shallot Reduction

Ingredients

Steak Preparation

21-Day Aged Steak (12 - 16 ounce steak (¾ - 1 inch thick)

1 tablespoon dried herbs (Herbs de Provences blend: rosemary, thyme, savory)

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper



Red Wine Reduction Sauce

2 shallots, minced

¼ cup fruity red wine

½ cup beef stock

Dash sea salt

Dash black pepper

2 drops liquid Stevia or 1 teaspoon agave nectar or sugar



Garnish

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Directions



On a large plate, season the steak well with salt and pepper, let rest at room temperature for several minutes.



Heat a large skillet to medium heat. When it’s hot, lay the steak in the pan (no need to add more oil) and sear 3-4 minutes on each side, depending upon how rare you’d like your steak. Remove the steak to a plate and let sit 5 minutes before slicing.



Add the shallots to the hot pan and cook just 30 seconds. Add the wine, scraping the little bits, called fond, from the bottom of the pan. Simmer the wine for 2-3 minutes, until it has reduced by a third.



Add the stock and cook another 5-7 minutes, until the sauce has reduced by a third to a half. Stir in the salt, pepper and sweetener. Taste, adding more seasonings, if needed, to round out the flavors.



Spoon some sauce over the steak and drizzle with a bit of fresh, raw olive oil. Drop just a touch of balsamic over the top to bring out the flavors of the wine and meat. Serve warm.