Food media tends to separate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day along a well-defined line. Put all the meat and grilling stories for dad in June and leave all the breakfast-in-bed and brunch stories for mom in May.
Well, this mom is ready for a thick-cut steak this Mother's Day, so I turned to Loreal Gavin, author of "The Butcher Babe Cookbook: Comfort Food Hacked by a Classically Trained Chef" for a recipe for bourbon blue cheese sauce and a technique that involves searing the filet on one side and then finishing it in the oven. She tops it with a simple trio of salad veggies, but feel free to serve this with anything else that puts a smile on mom's face.
Filet with Bourbon Blue Cheese Sauce
2 (8-ounce) filets
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large tomato, cut into wedges
1 scallion, cut on the bias
1/4 red onion, cut into wedges
For the bourbon blue cheese sauce:
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces bourbon
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
5 ounces smoked or regular blue cheese
Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Season the filets with salt and pepper.
In a screaming-hot cast iron pan, add a touch of vegetable oil, sear the filets for five minutes on one side then flip them over. Add a nice little fleck of butter on each filet, reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and then finish roasting for six additional minutes. Pull the filets out of the oven and remove them from the hot pan. Let them rest for 10 minutes for the perfect mid-rare.
To make the bourbon blue cheese sauce, sweat the garlic, butter, bourbon, red chili flakes and salt in a small saucepan. Once the sauce has reduced by half, remove it from the heat and add the cream and blue cheese. Mix together with a large spoon until incorporated and it starts to thicken up. Right before you serve the sauce over the steaks, make sure to toss in the tomato, scallion and red onion. Serves 2.
— From "The Butcher Babe Cookbook: Comfort Food Hacked by a Classically Trained Chef" by Loreal Gavin (Page Street Publishing, $22.99)
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