Wine Wednesday on pause, but the weekend is almost here!
We made it to the middle of the week! I can almost feel the weekend coming on. Normally I’d be looking forward to a wine Wednesday, but since we’re eating clean and not drinking during the week, my glass of wine will have to wait until Friday. That being said I wanted to post a recipe that could be the cheat meal for the weekend or even a stay-at-home dinner for Valentine’s day weekend as well.
We usually don’t go out for Valentine’s day; restaurants are busy, food is marginal, and usually they rush you out for the next seating. My idea of a perfect V-day is cooking a nice meal at home, cracking open our favorite bottle of wine, and ending the night with an outdoor fire. Believe it or not, usually the hubs cooks dinner for me that night, which I love, but it does feel odd sitting on the non-cooking side of our kitchen. 😉
I actually made this meal the first Saturday after the new year. I dubbed it our New Year’s Eve dinner since we spent NYE with our family and kept it low key with appetizers, which I love. I’ll definitely do an app only post in the near future; I have so many go to appetizers that I would love to share with you all.
I decided on a typical steakhouse meal that consisted of salad, steak, polenta, and mushrooms. I did take some help with this meal and used the recipe from LG’s for the Cesar Salad. LG’s is a steak house and there used to be a restaurant here in San Diego as well as one in LA, but sadly those are both closed and the only two left open are in Palm Springs. At least I kept that menu cards from years ago, so we can still enjoy that classic Cesar salad. Now onto the meal!
LG’s Classic Cesar Salad Recipe
Polenta:
1 cup of Polenta (I used Golden Pheasant Polenta)
4 cups of water
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of butter
Bring water to a boil, add salt and slowly pour polenta in pan. Continue stiring polenta over medium heat until you achieve the right consistency. I usually stir the polenta for about 15-20 minutes. Once the right consistency is reached add butter. Pull off hot burner and keep on another burner at a warm setting.
Sauteed Mushrooms:
1 package of baby Bella mushrooms sliced
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of Italian parsley
1/2 cup of dry red wine
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Heat pan over medium heat and add olive oil. Place mushrooms in pan and saute for 5 minutes. Add salt and continue cooking until mushrooms are soft. Add wine and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and continue cooking until most of the wine has reduced. Add butter and parsley, mix and pull off heat.
Filet Mignon:
2 filet mignon steaks (Butcher Box of course 😉)
2 – 4 tablespoons
1 to 2 tablespoons of italian parsley
2 tablespoon of avocado oil
salt and pepper
Bring meat to room temperature. (Usually I pull the steaks out of the refrigerator about 20-30 minutes before preparing it.) Pat the steaks dry; salt and pepper steaks right before cooking them. Place cast iron skillet on high heat and pour in avocado oil. Place steaks in skillet and cook for about 3-4 minutes depending on the thickness of the steak. Flip and continue to cook on the other side. Place butter and parsley in skillet. Use melted butter to baste the steak and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes. Plate steak and allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing. This produced a steak cooked medium rare; can cook longer to desired temperature.
Wine to pair?
Well guess what…..it’s not a Pinot! I would go with a big bold Cabernet or even a Merlot for this one. I had half a bottle of Raymond Merlot that I used to “help” me cook. During the meal we had a wonderful Howl at the Moon Howell Mountain Cabernet and it went perfect.
So please let me know what you do for Valentine’s Day and if you usually go out, why not stay in and make this yummy meal. Or even better have the hubs make it for you! Cheers 🍷
