G-steak

STRIKES AGAIN!!

I suffer from, in the words of my Dad and Grandma, a "one track mind." This means that when I have an idea, I pretty much have to run with it until it runs its course (and I have a new idea, or the old idea and I get sick of each other). This has been the cause of some concern throughout my life, but I was relieved when my oldest daughter started doing the same thing. Clearly it's genetic, so I can no longer be held responsible for my affliction. Whew! Ok, confession is over: ten Hail Marys and get back in the kitchen!

I was wondering, in my one-track-mind way, if that Galliano sauce I made the other day would work with a less complicated preparation. So, I gave it a whirl with steak (you may have guessed this from the title of the post, and please excuse the titile -- it just popped in my head and, well, I had to run with it).

NOTE: This recipe (and the other one) creates considerable "recipe smell" in the house. If you have to live with one of those unfortunate people that don't like "recipe smell" then I suggest you fire up the kitchen fan full speed, cook this when they're out of town, or just take your lumps and enjoy the good eats!

I started with the recipe for bistro steak, and went up to the point where you pull the steak out of the oven. Now, you may be wondering: "Hey, what the Hell is Joe doing cooking a steak in the house when it is summer AND a sunny evening to boot?!" Well, let me just say that sometimes your neighbour has a huge load of laundry on the line, and sometimes the wind is blowing towards their house, and, being a charcoal user, you wonder if they are like you and really do prefer "forest fire" to the "mountain breeze" smell they usually have on their laundry. Anyway, I think they are more "mountain breeze" people, and abstained from the fire. So here we are in the kitchen.

Basically, I just switched Galliano for the bourbon in the bistro recipe. Once the pan comes out of the oven, toss some onions in there to sauté for awhile. These will cool the pan a bit so that when the booze hits you don't flambé your eyebrows off. Keep the heat on about medium for this process.

Next step is to add the Galliano. I used 1/4 cup, but you could go for the proportions in the bistro steak recipe if you want lots of sauce (1/3 cup booze, 1/2 cup of cream). The pan should be cool enough now to avoid an inferno, but if you have a gas stove, you're on your own and I absolve myself of all responsibility!

Let this bubble away and reduce. Once your spoon starts leaving tracks in the sauce it's getting thick enough for the cream.

Add 1/3 cup of heavy cream (or 1/2 a cup if you are on the lots-o-sauce track) and let that heat through. Now, you need to reduce the cream down to thicken the sauce, but you don't want it to separate (i.e. turn into thin watery goop with clumps of milk in it). To avoid this keep the temp at a nice gentle bubble, and if it starts to look in danger...

...tilt your pan to cool it and collect the sauce into one spot so the heat evens out.

Again, keep reducing until your spoon leaves nice tracks -- how do you like the Speed Spoon in the photo?! (Your steak should be somewhere under cover resting right now, by the way.)

Then serve up! Skip the usual starches and serve this puppy with steamed yellow beans (which are wonderful right now: I hope you have a farmer's market nearby!) and tomatoes (which are also wonderful!) I dressed the tomatoes with some salt, pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar (which they don't really need, but which I like, so there).

And the verdict? Did it work? All I can say is "Oh yeah!"

(The next recipe might not have Galliano in it, but you never know...)