The wife wanted to eat in to celebrate her birthday last week. She asked for surf and turf:

We bought some fillets at the butcher shop and ordered some lobsters from the Wicked Fresh Lobster Company, a local company that flies in fresh lobsters from Maine. We ordered late, so the lobsters arrived pre-steamed. I was actually a little grateful for that, because cooking lobsters can be quite a production. All I had to do was boil water in a stock pot to re-heat them. That meant I could focus on the steaks and the broccolini.

We steamed/sauteed the broccolini in a manner similar to this recipe, and the steaks were cooked au poivre with a few small changes. First I coated them with coarsely ground pepper and cooked them in a pan (with 1 tbsp each of butter and olive oil) over medium heat for about 4 minutes per side. After that, I moved the steaks to a plate to rest and poured the excess grease out of the pan. Then I added another tablespoon of butter, a minced shallot and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. When they softened, I deglazed the pan with 3/4 cup port wine and lit it to burn off the alcohol. When that reduced by half, I added a cup of low sodium beef stock. When the liquid reduced to a thick sauce, I added another tablespoon of butter and put the steaks (and their juices) back into the pan to coat them. Finally, I poured the excess sauce over the steaks. They had a great crust and the sauce was nicely balanced. Traditionally, au poivre relies on cognac and cream to make the sauce, but I didn’t have any cognac and I thought cream would have diluted the flavor too much. Our version came out a little sweeter than the original recipe.

We got the port wine a few months ago at Rock House Vineyards in Tryon, NC. Here are a few pictures of the place:

 |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post  |  Home Page |  Back