30 Minute Steakhouse!
Steak Au Poivre + Rosemary Fingerling "frites" : Simple restaurant cooking at home
Surprise, surprise! Winter cooking can be fun. (This is news to me, as someone predisposed to deep seasonal depression and a glass-half-empty approach to slowly lingering root vegetables.)
If you tuned in last week, then you know I created a self-prompt: four weeks of “inspired winter cooking” in which I seek out inspiration for winter recipes rather than slog along and complain that it is somehow still February—and even though the snow is beginning to melt, the muck that follows is arguably worse. (I swear a positive spin is coming.)
It turns out I love a prompt. It harkens to my typical menu-writing process, in which I first take a look around—peruse a market, chat with a farmer to see what’s growing. What do I have access to? That conversation quickly jumps to craving. Once I have a list in front of me, I think: What do I want to eat? What do I long for? What would satiate my hunger? It always starts with hunger—even when writing a whole restaurant menu. If I don’t want to eat it, I don’t want to cook it. That’s how the dots get connected between ingredients and a dish. That’s how my cooking feels personal.
My recent trip to the market started as I suspected— a bit lackluster. Sure, there were chicories, but they are no longer from this area. Yes, there are still turnips (but we did that last week) and rutabaga… although I’m not sure a second week in a row of roots from the brassica family would be appreciated by our digestive tracts…
But as my hunger started to grow in the late afternoon hours, I felt drawn to the woody herbs in front of me and these magnificently freaky, speckled fingerling potatoes. Suddenly all I wanted was a martini and fries—a common craving no matter the season. I paused in front of the freezer of local meat and reached for my favorite cut— NY strip. There was a perfectly sized, fat-capped steak right in front of me, from Kinderhook Farm. Perhaps steak and potatoes felt too obvious. Is that inspired winter cooking, or just regular cooking in winter? I shook off the doubt. It’s what I wanted to eat. And the best part— it’s what I would want even if it weren’t the dark days of February.
Some springy baby butter lettuces, grown in a greenhouse nearby, felt like a miracle given the weeks of deep freeze we have just faced and sealed the deal that a full steakhouse dinner was in order.
Plus, I am the one writing the rules. If I feel inspired, if my craving is met, and it’s also winter, then it must be inspired winter cooking. So I set off to cook one of my truly favorite meals— steak au poivre.
The “frites” are a fun play on a fry and a roasted potato wedge—small enough to crisp up and still serve as a vehicle for dipping. Tossed with fresh rosemary, they do have a certain wintry quality that gives them a little boost.
The inspiration came in the ease, the familiar, and the fact that this impressively “fancy” yet unfussy dinner came together in 30 minutes—hence the “30-Minute Steakhouse.”
Plus, winter food is comfort food. In the state of all things lately, comfort feels called for. The comfort of a cherished favorite meal is deeply healing in times like these. Not to mention, in the absence of restaurant cooking for me this time of year, it feels good to flex the muscle of basting a pan and searing a single piece of meat. There is ritual in the routine.
So in honor of this momentous occasion of bringing a restaurant-quality meal (easily) home, I have a full cooking video for you this week to walk you through the easy steps to replicate it.
Happy searing!
