Bourbon Beef Steak with Blistered Broccoli and Napa Cabbage

You know those shirts that say:“I cook with wine, sometimes I put in my food”?. Think of that and replace wine with bourbon for this recipe. You would be surprised how versatile good old Jack can be not only for the meat, but also for the side dish. So let’s start breaking this recipe down.

The meat- grab yourself a nice piece of beef steak. Now, I wanted to mix things for the meat so I did a super easy and delicious trick that can give a real lift to any steak. Cook your meat to your desired result (remember that test to check your meat by comparing to different variations of your clenched fist? Use it!). 

With one minute or so to spare throw in the pan 20 grams of bourbon and flambé the meat. Also, it will impress anyone else in the room making you look like you performed a Holywood-like stunt. What can I say? The ladies enjoy a live flambee…. Back to business, let the meat rest for 3-4 minutes, lightly brush one side with some spicy mustard (try and get the type that has horseradish in it) then grab the meat and put the mustard side in some ground pepper. This will give your meat a strong, pregnant peppery taste and you can always use this trick to cover one or more sides of a steak that didn’t really came out your way.

So where should we use more bourbon you ask? Why, the sauce, of course. 

Grab yourself 75 grams of butter, 

some shimenji mushrooms (or whatever type make you happy on the inside), 

50 grams of whisky, 

50 grams of stock and 

the same amount of cream. 

Start of by melting the butter in the same pan that you cooked the meat in. Add in the mushrooms and cook them for 3 minute on high heat, then pour in the whisky. Take advantage of this occasion to perform some more pyrotechnics, cook for another minute, then reduce the heat and add the stock and cream. In about 3 minutes add the salt and pepper and remove from heat. 

For the side dish, I served the meat with some blistered broccoli and stir fried Napa Cabbage. Regarding the last ingredient, it was a nice surprise for me as its taste proved to work very nice with the meat. Simply cut it any way you want and throw it in a pan with a couple tbs. of olive oil on high heat. Cook for 2 minutes and add just a touch of bourbon to, you guessed it, flambé the cabbage, cook for another 2 minutes. Touch of salt and pepper and you’re done.

The other vegetable didn’t get the bourbon treatment, but I can’t complain: Mrs. G liked it a lot, so much that I can’t cook broccoli in any other way. What can I say? Broccoli can do that to a woman. I found this recipe on Instagram, on the @bonappetitmag account. Cut the veggie into florets making sure you keep a long enough stalk for each floret.

Then cut each one in half so you have a flat surface for each broccoli. Heat up some olive oil on high heat, put the veggie with the flat side down in there and cook until you get a dark brown color. Flip the broccoli and place the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. Plate the broccoli and add a splash of lemon juice, some chili flakes and garlic slices. Absolutely delicious. It’s a wonderful way to give broccoli a nice twist, similar to a Ottolenghi recipe for a broccoli salad that applied similar that technique, but in which you first blanched the veggie before grilling it on a super hot grill.

So, that was our bourbon beef dinner, but feel free to use whisky instead of bourbon. As a suggestion here, go for Islay whisky, some Laphroaig would really hit the spot with its peaty, rich taste.

Enjoy,

Prosciutto Wrapped Beef Tenderloin, Mushroom and Spinach Sauté and Polenta

This was, without the shadow of a doubt, one of the best dishes I tried in our kitchen. The ingredients themselves were great and the combo proved to be top notch quality. So, I’m going to take it step by step, and explain every dish separately.

The meat: for this dish we had a nice piece of beef tenderloin, about 400-450 grams, that we cut in to 3 equal parts. The advantage of using the loin is the fact that the mat has a round shape and it’s easier to wrap the prosciutto around it. Besides the beef, I had 6 slices of the prosciutto, 2 tbs of finely chopped sage and  a couple of tbs of olive oil. Wrap 2 prosciutto strips around the length of each beef portion, leaving the sections clear (you can use string to keep the met on, I didn’t find it necessary).  Rub some sage on the parts that are not covered by the ham.  Next, heat up the olive oil in a oven-proof pan, and, when it’s nice and hot cook on all sides for about 1 minute each. After that, transfer the pan to a preheated oven (180 Celsius) for around 15 minutes or how long you need to cook the meat the way you like it. After that, just let it sit for a couple of minutes before  cutting it an transferring to a plate.

Mushroom and Spinach Sauté : Meanwhile, heat up some oil in a pan, and add 1 medium onion and 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, and about 500 grams of button mushrooms, cleaned and cut into quarters. Saute this over medium high heat until the mushrooms are soft, add about 200 grams of spinach leaves, salt, pepper, and cook for another 2 minutes, then remove from the stove.

For the polenta, put to boil in a tall, heavy base pan, 500 ml water, a pinch of salt, and a sprinkle of cornmeal. When this mix starts boiling, slowly add more cornmeal, mixing constantly. When it gets hard to mix, stop adding the flour, but keep on stirring the polenta. This whole operation should be done in 12-15 minutes.  Remove the pan form the heat, add 50 grams of butter and about 75 grams of grated parmigiano and mix it all together.

So, these are the 3 parts of the recipe, actually pretty easy to cook at the same time. You can also make a very easy reduction, like the one here. 

Enjoy!