Peppery Love

My Beloved loves steak. He also loves pepper. It stands to reason that he'd really love Steak au Poivre and, every now and then, I make this favorite dish to insure his continued regard.

Epicurious.com had an easy and delicious-sounding recipe for Steak au Poivre with balsamic reduction so I started with that but I happened also to read some of the reviews and got another good idea from one of those.

Using two good-sized ribeye steaks (I like mine medium-rare while he likes his still to have a blood pressure), I patted them dry and loaded them up with freshly cracked black peppercorns and sprinkled them with just a little salt. A heavy skillet works best; I melted a little butter and oil until they were hot but not smoking, cooking the room-temperature steaks for about two-three minutes per side, then removed them to a platter to rest while I added a minced shallot and garlic to the pan. Once the aromatics had cooked just briefly, I added 1/4 cup of good balsamic vinegar and cooked them all together until the vinegar was reduced by about half.

The steak was sliced, the reduction was poured and the man took a bite, closed his eyes and savored in stunned silence for a moment, then turned to me with love in his eyes and said, "Wow, great steak!"