St. Patrick’s Day Steaks

Once again it’s the time when everyone is Irish and green reigns supreme. But, if you are looking for an AWESOME dinner, look no further. Every holiday seems like an excuse to eat a really nice steak! This recipe is great for this time of the year when grilling can be a challenge (although this week is looking great – unlike the snow and ice of the last few weeks….). The only thing a really great steak needs is a really great sauce to go on top. This recipe is the one you want for St. Patrick’s Day (or really anytime you want a nice filet inside….).

I learned the beginnings of this recipe while I was assisting at the Central Market Cooking School in Austin TX. I’ve adapted it over the years and I think this will be a “go to” recipe for you! I taught this recipe in my class this past Saturday night – Irish Dinner. Everyone seemed to enjoy this dish on Saturday and since I had one uncooked filet left over, we bought another one today so that Lori and I would have a nice St. Patrick’s Day dinner (a day early….). All they had today were really big filets, which I didn’t mind at all. (Yes, I took the bigger one – since it was much thicker, it came out a bit more rare – more than Lori likes…..).

This is a very easy recipe and I guarantee you, anyone you serve this to will be impressed!

So enough of that – let’s get to the recipe! (The recipe uses four steaks, for us I only cooked two. The sauce recipe makes way more than enough, so you could easily do 8 steaks and maybe have a little sauce left over….)

Filet Steaks with Irish Whiskey Cream Sauce

Yield – 4 Steaks and a good bit of sauce….

4  Beef Tenderloin Filets — 1 to 1 1/4 inch thick (About 7 ounces each)
salt and pepper
1   tablespoon  oil
1   tablespoon  unsalted butter
3   tablespoons  shallots — finely chopped (About 1 large shallot)
1/4  cup  Irish Whiskey
1/2  cup  beef stock
1/2  teaspoon  Worcestershire sauce
2    teaspoons  Dijon mustard
1/2   cup  Heavy cream
1/2   teaspoon  lemon juice — freshly squeezed

Season steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Heat a heavy skillet or saute pan over high heat until quite hot (Like 375 to 425 degrees).  Add oil. Add steaks on one side for about 2 minutes until nicely browned. (The pan is hot enough when the steaks “sizzle” when you put them in the pan.) Check and if the steak is nicely browned, if not, let it cook an additional minute.  Turn steaks and cook the other side for 2 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium and cook the steaks another two minutes.  Turn and cook a final two minutes.  Check the internal temperature of the steaks and if they are not done enough for your tastes, move to a rack on a sheet pan and put the steaks in the oven while you prepare sauce.  Otherwise, remove steaks, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest while you prepare the sauce. (We preheated the oven in case you need to cook the steaks a bit more – if you don’t need to, go ahead and turn the oven off – I had to put the small steak in the oven for about 5 minutes and the large one for about 9 minutes to get them to the temperature I like.)

In the same pan over medium heat, add the butter and let it melt. (Just a note – I don’t know why I can’t read when I’m cooking, but in the pictures, I put in 4T of butter.) Add the shallots and cook stirring frequently until fragrant and tender, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the whiskey or brandy and stir with a wooden spoon scraping the bottom of the pan for any brown bits.  (If you use a non-stick pan, you won’t get the nice brown bits for the sauce – that’s why I like my stainless sauté pan!) Add the beef stock and Worcestershire sauce.  Increase heat to medium high and bring mixture to a boil.

Whisk in mustard and then cream.  Continue to cook, boiling, stirring often until reduced and thickened to sauce consistency, about 3 to 5 minutes. Taste the sauce and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Serve the steaks and spoon the sauce over them. Then enjoy your steak and sit back and enjoy the praise of your guests!

Here are the pictures…

In this pan, when I first put in the steaks, they will stick to the pan. That’s fine – just wait until the crust forms and they will release. You want a nice crust on the first side.

Like I said in the notes – I don’t know what I was thinking – but I put in more butter than the recipe calls for. Is that really a BAD thing??????

You will notice that all of the brown that was on the bottom of the pan has dissolved into the sauce – that’s what we want. The brown bits on the pan are often call “fond.”

And there we have the Filet Steak with an Irish Whiskey Cream Sauce. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!