Garlic Butter Steak and Chimichurri Sauce

It's Monday morning again. It's hard to write the blog after an evening of cooking, you know? You don't mind if I get a good night's sleep first do you? Good.

I love this steak recipe so much. It's so simple, but utterly delicious. It's from one of my favourite cookbooks, Anita Stewart's Canada. Anita is a 'culinary activist and gastronomer' or so says her bio. But I actually love her take on Canadiana food. She looks at recipes that have come to be a part of the Canadian food landscape due to immigration.  As a result, there are recipes from all difference cultures in the book. The only issue I have with the book is the GLARING exclusion of poutine in the potato section. I mean come on! You can't write a cookbook on Canadiana food and not include poutine! I may be a tad bit biased as it's my last meal request food. Hmmmm on that note I've yet to do a poutine yet for the blog. Mental note.

The other thing I love about this cookbook is that Anita does a little preamble to every recipe with information on where she first ate the food or tidbits about the person who wrote the recipe. So you read a little Canadiana experience before each recipe. It's so integral to the book, the recipes felt incomplete without it's inclusion. 

Frederique's Fabulous Garlic Steak

My friend Frederique Philip came to Canada from France in 1978 and moved to Vancouver Island the following year. As the co-owner of Sooke Harbour House, one of the finest inns on earth, she has very little time to cook for herself. Her dinners are simple and fast and full of flavour. She showed me this amazing recipe when she visited Elora one autumn. The amounts can be varied to suit your personal taste and how many servings you need. Grilled medium-rare with fresh garlic from the Guelph Farmers Market, it was the best steak I've ever eaten. We drank the finest Niagara red wine we could afford, and I served the steak with barbeque-roasted Bijou Rouge potatoes, a variety that will be in general distribution soon. Watch for them - they taste as though they've already been buttered. For extra zip, serve this steak with Sarah's Chimichurri Sauce.

For each serving:
1 filet or strip loin, 4 to 6 oz (125 to 175 g)
Salt
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 tsp (5ml) butter, slightly softened

Lightly salt the steak and grill it to the desired doneness. Meanwhile, crush a clove or 2 of garlic onto the dinner plate; top with the butter. 

When the steak is done, simply lay it on top. Grind a bit of pepper over top.

Sarah's Chimichurri Sauce

After a trip to Buenos Aires, where red meat is a huge part of the day-to-day diet, Sarah Mitchell developed this recipe to serve with the wild venison and the Highland beef that her sister raises on her ranch in norther British Columbia. "Make it as spicy or mild as you wish by adding a variety of fresh chilies," says Sarah. "The only prerequisite is a tremendous amount of garlic. The best garlic is local; imported bulbs lose their pungency with travel. For additional heat, leave the seeds in the jalapeno." Being a bit of a culinary nationalist, she substituted cider vinegar but says a great red wine vinegar can also be used.

This sauce is absolutely perfect with grilled steak or filet. Actually, I rather like heaping it onto crusty bread or using it to jazz up simple barbecued chicken. One word of caution about the garlic content: if you're having guests, everyone must eat this dish!

Yeild: 4 to 6 servings

8 to 10 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 or 3 green onions, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup minced fresh coriander
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive or canola oil
1/2 tsp salt

In a food processor, combine the garlic, jalapeno pepper, red pepper and onions. Pulse off and on to chop finely, scraping down the sides once or twice. Transfer to a mixing bowl; stir in the coriander, cider vinegar, oil and salt. Serve at room temperature. Refrigerate any leftovers, well covered!

I served the steak and sauce with my Mom's Perogie Recipe and mixed winter vegetables I bought at a local market. 

I love this bag of veg, it includes heirloom carrots, garlic scape, radishes, beets and sunchokes. So delish. I cooked them for 30 min in the oven at 350 with butter, chicken broth, salt, pepper and a bit of rosemary. So good.

Funday Tips

1. I found that the Chimichurri recipe called for FAR too much garlic. Next time I would probably go with 6 cloves. My culinary genius bestie was over and suggested we try to cook some of the pungency out of the garlic, so we put the finished sauce on low for about 20 mins. This also helped reduce down some of the vinegar, as there seemed to be a bit too much of this too. I'd probably go with 1/3 cup next time.
2. When I tried to do Mom's Perogies the other night, I defrosted them first and they stuck together. A total bummer as peeling them apart caused some to loose their filling. Last night I tried cooking them straight from frozen. This helped with the sticking issue, but they did come out a little a la dente. Not sure if I need to cook them more or if this was because they were cooked from frozen? One more bag left in the freezer to find out!

Cheers!