Pepper Steak (and beer)

After a nice long walk along the waterfront, and a quick stop at the LCBO on the way home, Barb and I were set up for nice long evening of chatting, and cooking, with a few drinks to go along with it.... our standard modus operandi on any given evening when we get together. Last night we brought two new treats home from the liquor store....Strawberry Beer, called Fruli (also available at The Beer Store), and Grower's Peach Cider. The winner of the evening was the strawberry beer, light and refreshing, with enough strawberry flavour to quench the bitterness that I usually find in beer, also a beautiful earthy pink colour.

I was a little disappointed in the peach cider, I love peach-flavoured drinks, but it fell a little flat. I'd still love to see a good lime and lager come out, because even though I've tried the Bud Light and Lime, there isn't enough lime flavour, and the best one is the one I make with lots of Rose's Lime Cordial in whatever beer we happen to have on hand. Anyway, we also figured we should practice a little for today's St. Paddy's day pub session, where I'll meet Barb later, and spend the day drinking green cider (Strongbow), and eating things like deep-fried pickles and sweet potato fries.

That was the bit about beer, which I normally don't drink, but I did try some Innis & Gunn (or Innocent Gun, as it sounds to others who haven't heard of it) which was given to us at Christmas (two years ago). It was a variety pack, one of which was winterberry, another raspberry, and a rummy one, along with its regular beer. So that is also beer I can drink without grimacing too much, lol. I did really enjoy the winterberry one (although I can't really think of any actual berries that grow normally in the winter, guess there must be something out there somewhere). And last summer, when Barb and I went to the Scottish Highland Games in Uxbridge, we definitely decided some Innis & Gunn would have to be our end of day drink (our breakfast drink was Gatorade and vodka, shhh., definitely put us in a happy mood to stand all day trying to sell Wordstock to crowds people intent on hitting the beer tent). We really aren't super-lushes, it's just that trying new wine or drinks definitely lends itself well to trying new food and recipes too.

So, pepper steak....mmm....one of Steve's favourites, and mine too. This recipe originally came from a French cookbook Steve bought me for our first Christmas, and well, I've made the pepper steak a lot. I don't know how many of the other recipes I tried, because I know this one is in there, and when I think about it, I just want to eat that instead of trying something new. I can't imagine it is much different from any other great pepper steak recipe out there so, here it is. The original recipe called for brandy in the sauce, which is really great, but I ran out of it one day and substituted it with Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry, and really loved it too, so I actually use that most of the time now. This recipe is for 2, but is easily doubled. The sauce is so good you can practically drink it on its own... This is a VERY peppery dish, so you had better love spice.

2 steaks (tenderloin usually, striploin is good too), trimmed of fat
2-3 T peppercorns, crushed
2T butter
1 T olive oil
2-4 cloves of garlic, pressed, or minced (according to your taste)
1/4 cup (or more) of brandy (or sherry)
1 cup whipping cream.

Ta-da. That's it. Easy list. So crush your peppercorns first, (I have a lovely marble mortar and pestle I found on sale one day, and it is by far one of my favourite kitchen tools). I use it to grind up whole allspice too (for the Jamaican beef skewers), and whatever else needs grinding up. Pounding peppercorns is pretty satisfying, and the smell of fresh pepper is soooo exhilarating. If you don't have one of these, put the peppercorns into a heavy plastic Ziploc bag and go at them with a rolling pin or something else heavy. I like the pepper nice and chunky, not ground into powder. Crushed. Like it says in the recipe :) I think you can also buy crushed black pepper, but you know, go for the peppercorns and have some fun. It's what cooking is about.

Press both sides of the steak into the crushed pepper
Melt the butter and in the olive oil (I do this a lot when cooking anything in butter, since oil lowers the temperature the butter needs to melt at, and the butter doesn't burn as easily as when melting butter by itself).

Cook the steaks, on a medium temperature, for five minutes, and flip and cook for another five on the other side. This is where my cooking goes by instinct,so if you push the steak and it is still soft, it means it's probably still raw inside. You want it to spring back, and the firmer it gets, the more it is cooked. This is probably obvious to some people, but you know, I would personally rather have more well-cooked steak than underdone, but you can also just cut the steak if you're not sure, and see if it's done to your liking. I've done it enough now that I can sort of tell, but it depends how high the temp is, because if it's too high, it will be almost burned on the outside and raw in the middle, I've made this mistake, so a more moderate temperature is really the best. It takes longer, but the result is much more even.

Remove steaks and keep covered in a bowl. Add the brandy and cook until reduced by about half(til it gets kind of sticky-looking),  and then add the garlic and  cream. I love the colour of the sauce just before stirring it all up, like marbleized paper. So, this takes awhile, (5-10 mins) and lower the heat a little, and stir until the sauce is thicker and darkens up nicely. Add back the juices that have seeped out of the resting steak, and stir some more.

Again, with the sauce, it's tempting to turn up the heat to make the process go faster, which it does, but I've had the sauce separate when I've done this, and while it still tastes okay, it looks disgusting. So just take it easy, sip your drink, sing your favourite silly songs (we had on some Funky Favourites, from that classic K-Tel record when we were kids), and the sauce, and you, will be better for it.

 Believe it or not, I don't add salt to this sauce, because Pepper is the star, with it's best supporting actress "Sherry", and best supporting actor "Garlic" (you can call it "Ail"). Snicker.  I like to serve this with mashed potatoes (this is where you will find the salt), and snow peas in  butter and brown sugar. So get your plates ready, and pour the sauce over the steak, and scrape the pan, since that is where the peppercorns are hanging out with the garlic, and you want it all!! I tried to take photos as I went, but the lighting in my kitchen is terrible, and everything looked yellow. Time to change the lightbulbs.

 And well, "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy," sums this dish up for me :)