Dan Bites

This is actually what I cooked last Thursday night for dinner. I had a couple of huge strip steaks that I cooked up. If you go back, you’ll see that I sautéed some red kale with onion the night before. I made way too much, we still had leftovers after Thursday’s lunch. To get rid of it I turned it into a soup to go with the steaks. I also made some garlic mashed potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and sliced some avocado.

For the soup I used the leftover kale, a can of canelli beans drained and rinsed, and one carrot chopped up. I put all of the ingredients in a soup pot along with 3 cups of water. I brought it up to a slow boil, covered the pot, then turned the heat down to low and let it simmer for 45 minutes or so while I prepared the rest of dinner.

For the potatoes I peeled and cubed 4 yukon golds and added them to a pot of boiling water along with 5 garlic cloves. I let it boil for about 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes were soft enough to mash-up. Then I drained them, put them back in the pot (garlic included), and poured in 3/4 cup of milk. I mashed it all up with salt and pepper until it was nice and creamy.

For the tomatoes I slivered a clove of garlic and speared on sliver into each tomato. I drizzled some olive oil all over and roasted them at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes.

I salted both sides of the steaks and then coated them heavily with black pepper. In a really hot ovenproof skillet I melted 2 tablespoons of butter and then set the steaks in to sear them up. I let them sit for about 4-5 minutes until the bottom were nice and brown. If they are sticking to the pan, then they’re not quite ready. Once they release with ease, they’re to be flipped. I only let the side sear for about 2 minutes and then I put the skillet in the 375 degree oven for about 10 minutes. When I took it out I let the steaks rest on a plate for about 7 minutes while I made the sauce. I turned the burner back on and deglazed the skillet with about 1/4 cup of red wine. Once that reduced down I poured in 1/4 cup of milk. I let it reduce for a few minutes and then turned off the heat. Since I used milk, the sauce separated a little, that’s where cream would have been better. The sauce would have turned out nice and smooth with cream. Oh well. After the steak rested I sliced it and served it up.

I put a big dollop of mashed potatoes on one side, laid some avocado slices down on the other. I laid some steak on to of the avocados and spooned some sauce over the top. Then I put a couple of tomatoes on the plate and ladled up the soup.