I checked my calendar and I’m nowhere near barbecue season. I checked the weather forecast and it looks like we’re in for a “back to normal”, cold Canadian winter. Alas, still no barbecue.
I have coped well this year with using the stove top and oven to cook my steaks to my satisfaction.
I find pan-searing the meat and finishing it off in the oven seems to work best. I also like that I can keep my steak “on hold” in the oven while I make a pan sauce.
This steak is a French bistro classic and as the title indicates, the steak is made with a red wine sauce. Traditionally, a brown stock or demi-glace is used in the sauce but I’ve found an easy shortcut in one of Jacques Pepin’s recipes.
He used mustard to thicken this quick pan sauce but I found this to make it taste too sour for my liking. This dish is easy to prepare and suitable for a weekday or even on a lazy weekend if you just feel like staying in.
If cooking for two, you’ll need a oven-safe skillet and two skillets would be needed for four to simultaneously sear and finish off the steaks in the oven.
Steak Marchand de Vin
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 New York strip steaks (about 6 ounces each), about 3/4 inch thick, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1 shallot, finely diced
1/2 teaspoon herbs de Provence
1/3 cup dry red wine, such as Beaujolais
1 tablespoon bottled steak sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 cup water
Pre-heated 375F oven
- Heat the butter in a large sturdy skillet. Sprinkle the steaks on both sides with the salt and pepper, and sauté in the hot butter over medium to high heat for about 3 minutes. Flip the steaks and finish off in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the skillet(s) and place the steaks on an oven safe plate. Turn off the heat in the oven and allow the steaks to stay warm in the oven.
- To your skillet, add the garlic, shallot and herbs de Provence to the drippings in the skillet, and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the wine and cook until the moisture in the pan has almost completely evaporated. Now stir in the steak sauce, ketchup, and water. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer and reduce until you achieve the desired thickness.
- Arrange the steaks on individual plates, coat with the sauce, and serve immediately.
Your steak looks perfectly cooked Peter. The sauce sounds exceptional. When are you opening that restaurant again..wink..wink.. I will be there every day!!
Good morning snowed Canada! It’s not lunchtime for me yet… here is 10:40 AM… but seeing this on the screen makes my stomach rumble!
Good idea using also the oven in this dish :)
Peter, this dish has Joao’s name written all over it!
I tried your wild boar recipe (with pork) during the weekend and it was excellent. I hope that you won’t mind if I post it (of course I will mention that I got the recipe from you). Now, this looks delicious as well. I looked up what Herbs de Province is and it’s just rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, thyme, and sometimes lavender (easy to find). For Beaujolais I have an excellent Cypriot red dry wine but I am not sure about the steak sauce if I can find any in the neighborhood supermarkets. Any suggestion?
Ivy, I’m so glad you and you family enjoyed the pork dish!
As for steak sauce, I think it’s available in Greece, try Alpha-Beta, as their international section is pretty good. The most common steak sauces are HP, A1 or Heinz. It has a flavour reminiscent of Worcestershire sauce but thicker.
Oh good, another way to use herbs de Provence! Also, what do you have the steaks served with, is that potatoes?
Pam, good eye, they were rosti potatoes.
That steak looks perfectly seared on the outside and nice and pink on the inside.