Pan-Seared Steak with Mustard Cream Sauce, Sweet Potato Fries, and Creamed Spinach
I’ve used my vacation this year to focus on the cooking aspect of my goals for 2018. So far it’s worked out pretty well. I’ve cooked 11 different recipes from 7 different books. This particular recipe comes from Martha Stewart’s Cooking School Cookbook, which I bought during a summer trip back to Nova Scotia during my vacation time at CNAQ. I recall K wanted to learn to cook, so after some searching, we settled on this book. I believe she got also bought it. I don’t think K ever really put it to use, and up until cooking this recipe, I had only used it for the how-to video on breaking down a whole chicken into pieces. This lack of use and attention is not meant to be a knock on the book, which is actually really well done. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to learn the basics of cooking. It isn’t just a collection of recipes but also has information on kitchen utensils, and different ingredients. So I looked through the book and settled on the pan-seared steak recipe and creamed spinach because it had a how-to video and I had most of the ingredients already on-hand. R made sweet-potato fries as a second side, which gave the plate some nice colour and the fries were quite tasty in their own right.
Pan-Seared Steak with Mustard Cream Sauce | |
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Sweet Potato FriesR found this recipe from Paula Deen at The Food Network’s website R was unaware of the controversy surrounding Deen when she chose the recipe and I never noticed it was from Paula Deen until after we ate it. So with those caveats aside. The fries were tasty. Next time though, we’ll go elsewhere to cook our fries. Creamed Spinach
Fill a large pot with about 8 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Also, prep a second pot with cold tap water and ice. I’ll explain the purpose of this later. While waiting for the water to boil, prep the spinach by rinsing it and removing the stems if you like. Place the spinach by the handful into the boiling water. It only needs to begin wilting, which should take about 2-3 minutes. Remove the spinach from hot water using a colander. The book recommends letting it cool, whereas Julia Child’s book recommends running it under cold water to cool it and stop the cooking process. Here in Doha, the water from the cold water tap isn’t as cold as what I’m used to in Canada, so, I used the ice water to cool the spinach and then I drained it again. Chop the spinach, squeeze the juices into a medium skillet, and set aside. Next, melt the butter in the skillet over medium heat and whisk in the flour. Cook for about two minutes until the mixture starts to bubble. Then whisk the milk into the mixture a little at a time, letting the mixture boil down a little before adding more. Once all the milk has been added, continue stirring and cooking until the mixture has thickened, about 2-3 minutes after the last of the milk was added. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Mix the spinach into to the sauce and add a pinch of nutmeg. Turn the heat down low and cover. Time to work on the steaks! Pan-Seared Steak
Make sure the steaks have been out of the fridge for 30 minutes before you start cooking! Season the steaks with salt and pepper on each side. If you begin with a cold center, the steaks won’t cook as well. Also, use a thick-bottomed pan for cooking the steaks. You’ll want something that can hold its heat for a while. Heat the pan on the stove-top to high. A couple of notches below max will do, but it depends on your stove. You’ll want it high enough so that the butter pretty much browns on contact. Set another pan on another burner and set the heat to low. This pan will be used to let the steaks rest later. Add the butter to the first pan in the outline of each steak and then lay the steaks on the butter. Don’t touch the steaks for at least two minutes. This will give you a nice seared steak. Now flip the steaks and sear them for another two minutes. In the how-to video, the chef actually sears the sides before flipping, but I opted to sear the sides after the second side. For a nice medium / medium-rare steak, I cooked the steaks the steaks an additional minute on each side. The book mentions you can insert a cooking thermometer through the side of the steak to get the steaks specifically cooked. 115-120°F means the steak is rare; 125°F is medium-rare, and 135-140°F means the steak is medium. Once the steaks are cooked as you like, place them in the low-heat pan to rest and cover the pan. Turn off the low heat burner. Time to prep the sauce. Mustard Cream Sauce
Use the wine to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to loosen the caramelized bits of steak. I found a silicone spatula was up to the task because my pan is Teflon. Once the wine is mostly reduced, stir in the dijon, followed by the cream. I added extra cream because I found the mustard was a little too overpowering when I tasted the sauce. Turn the heat off now and stir the sauce until it thickens. Since the pan is heavy-bottomed, it’ll keep enough heat to finish the sauce, which should take about 30 seconds to a minute. The book recommended ten seconds, but I thought the sauce was too runny, so I gave it the extra time. Plate the steaks along with fries and spinach, divide the sauce between the two steaks and enjoy! |