NY Strip Steaks w/ Port Wine Shallot Butter

While blogs all over are showcasing turkey this, and turkey that, I thought I'd take a different turn.  Do something completely off the Thanksgiving track.  Steak and frites. 

Anyway, this is another simple, yet fancy meal that can be made any day of the week!

We make beurre blancs for a lot of things on our menu at Jack Fry's.  We do a country ham beurre blanc to go with oysters, a sage beurre blanc for the filet, and a tomato and chive beurre blanc for our salmon.  All of which are A-MAZING.  But I may be partial since I work there.

So it's almost second nature to me to present a dish with a beurre of some sort included as the sauce.  One of the easiest and tastiest sauces you can make, in my opinion.  I mean, really, who doesn't like something covered in butter?  Probably a health nut... but good for us, we're not of that population.

Ingredients:

2 NY strip steaks
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Port Wine Shallot Butter:

1/4 cup port wine
1 small shallot, minced
1/2 cup veal/beef stock
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F. 

Heat a large oven-proof skillet (a cast iron works great for this) under medium high heat and add olive oil.  Season steaks with salt and pepper on both sides and add to pan.  Sear until nice and caramelized.  Flip steak over and transfer to oven to finish cooking to desired doneness.  We like a good medium rare-medium in our house.  Let rest for about 3-5 minutes before serving.

While the steak is finishing in the oven, you can start your sauce.  Heat a medium saucepan under medium high heat.  Add red wine, shallot, stock, and cracked pepper.  Reduce mixture to about 2 tablespoons.  Turn heat down to low and whisk in butter, a couple cubes at a time, being sure not to add more until the previous cubes are almost fully incorporated.  Continue until all butter is added.  Strain sauce of solids, if desired.  Stir in fresh parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Top steak with butter sauce and serve with a side of your choice - we did frites.  Dig on in!

This is definitely something so simple and quite delicious!  We don't indulge in red meat a lot in our house, but when we do, we do it right!

Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

Lemon-Shallot Chicken Breasts

So I have to give credit where credit is due.  Andy made this.  And it was excellent.  I'm not saying that Andy is challenged in the culinary department (he makes "man" meals).  He's actually pretty good.  But our styles are very different sometimes.

We have this system.  A system where we trade off weeks to cook.  Whoever's week it is to cook, also pays for the groceries.  A simple system, that results in good food all around. 

This is my week to cook.  But unfortunately, I've had some late shifts this week.  Well. Two.  If you count today, so really not that bad.  But it makes it difficult to sit down and cook a meal when I don't get home until 10 or 11.  So that's where Andy comes into play.  I set him down the night's recipe and he must follow it.  Of course, I'm frantically calling him to make sure he's doing it right - he still thinks margarine = butter.  So, I have all the right in the world to keep calling him, in my opinion.  Hehe.  It's all out of love, trust me.

And he was definitely good at following the directions on this one.  The chicken came out moist and delicious.  I almost feared using chicken breasts because I hate how dry they come out most of the time, but this was different.  Maybe I couldn't have cooked it better myself (but we won't let Andy know that for fear his ego will get larger than it already is).  Anyway, this is a must try!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Ina Garten's 'How Easy Is That'

2 chicken breasts
salt and pepper, to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 up Madeira wine
juice from 1 lemon
1 shallot, minced
3 tablespoons heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides.

Heat a large cast iron skillet (I'm jealous because Andy was the first to use our newly acquired cast iron that I received for Christmas) under medium high heat.  Add oil and heat until shimmering. 

Place chicken breasts, skin side down, into skillet and cook for about 5-6 minutes (if you use boneless chicken breasts, decrease the cooking time by a minute or two), or until skin is golden brown.

Flip breasts over and bake in over for about 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

While the chicken is roasting, heat a small saute pan under medium high heat.  Add madeira wine, lemon juice, and shallots.  Cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until only a couple tablespoons of liquid remain.  Stir in heavy cream.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then remove from heat.

Stir in butter until it is fully melted.  You want to do this slowly so the sauce does not "break".  Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Plate the chicken and top with lemon-shallot sauce. 

Andy also served this with some homemade mac and cheese (he really does make some good mac!) and a homemade dinner roll. 

This was definitely delicious and quick for a weeknight meal, that's for sure!  Enjoy guys!