Well, here we are, round 2 of our steak house dinner posting. Last time, we discussed the benefits of sous vide and how to apply it to a steak. Granted, this isn’t usually done at your typical steak house, but its better, so we did. Now we will dive in to the sides that we cooked with the steaks. Our sides consisted of potatoes au gratin, bacon creamed spinach, a red wine pan sauce, and crispy onions. I didn’t put the onions on the steak for the picture, slipped my mind but I will show you how to do that in case you’d like to not forget to put them on your steak. First on the table is going to be our au gratin potatoes.
These potatoes are very common in most steak houses around the country. They consist of thinly sliced Idaho potatoes, cream, and a crust of slightly browned melted cheese on top. Since we will be making these sides for one meal, this is the dish you will want to start with first because it will take the longest. In a sauce pan, add one quart of cream with one cup of water and two smashed cloves of garlic. Season liberally with salt and black pepper. You want this liquid to be slightly salty. Potatoes naturally leech out salt in a liquid, so you will need more salt than you think you will need. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Peel 3-5 medium sized Idaho potatoes. Using a mandoline slicer, slice potatoes about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to rinse off your potatoes well, you need to get rid of the initial layer of starch to prevent any oxidizing. I used a 2 quart baking dish, which will serve 6-8 people. Rub butter or spray some pan spray on the inside of the baking dish. Now, shingle the slices of potatoes in row until your first layer is done. Turn the dish 180 degrees and shingle going the opposite direction. Continue shingling, and rotating the rows and layers until you reach the top, or you use all the potatoes.
Now strain the cream into the dish until about 1/4 inch from the top of the potatoes. This cream will cook and reduce so there should be the perfect amount of cream. With an off set spatula, press down the top potatoes so the top layer is coated in cream. This will prevent any oxidizing of these potatoes and give you a nice finished color. Put in a 350 F oven for 15 minutes. After you put the potatoes in the oven, here is the time where you need to begin the creamed spinach. So, if you are making both of these recipes skip ahead to that description. After the 15 minutes in the oven, press the potatoes so they are flat and the cream coats the top layer. Back in the oven for 15 more minutes. Repeat these steps until you can stick a small knife in the center and it easily cuts to the bottom. That means the potatoes are cooked. My batch took 5 rounds of 15 minutes. Though I was using a convection oven so yours may take a bit longer. After your final press, top with our cheese mixture and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes, or until the top begins to get brown and bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes. They will stay hot for a long time, this just allows them to set up a bit better.
Au Gratin Potatoes
Equipment
- Mandoline
- 2 quart Baking Dish
- 2 quart Sauce Pot
Ingredients
- 4 each Idaho potatoes peeled
- 1 quart heavy cream
- 1 cup water
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 2 tbsp butter can substitute canola oil or pan spray
- 1 cup white cheddar cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup swiss cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese shredded
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small sauce pan heat cream, water, and garlic. Season well. You will want your liquid to taste slightly salty.
- Peel potatoes, rinse with water.
- Slice potatoes on mandoline at 1/8" thick. Rinse with water.
- Spread butter, or spray inside of baking dish.
- Shingle and layer potatoes in baking dish.
- Strain cream into baking dish until 1/4" from top of the potatoes.
- Using an offset spatula, press potatoes so all are covered in cream. Bake in a 350 F oven for 15 minutes.
- Repeat previous step of pressing potatoes and baking for 15 minutes at 350 F until cooked through (mine cooked in 5 rounds of 15 minutes).
- Mix cheese in bowl and add to the top of the potatoes. Return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is browned slightly.
Here is where you will need to begin if you are trying to make both of these dishes together. Render your bacon in a large saute pan until slightly crispy. Add your onions and garlic and continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the onions just begin to brown. Add your butter and cook for a minute until it melts completely. Add your flour and cook for about 3 minutes until you begin to see the roux start to darken. Whisk in your chicken stock followed by the heavy cream. Add your cheese and reduce the heat to low and allow the flavors to cook together. Make sure you continue to stir while this is cooking. We don’t want to scorch our base. Burn sauces are horrible and you will need to start over. While everything is cooking bring a large pot of water to a boil. We need to blanch our spinach. I used my largest pot and did two large batches of spinach, a bag in each batch. After you drop the spinach in the water, press it down to make sure all the greens are submerged. You will only need to blanch the spinach for about a minute then remove it into a strainer and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
When the last of the spinach has been blanched and cooled, you can begin to assemble your meal. Give the spinach a rough chop, so you don’t have ovely big pieces of spinach in your creamed spinach. Dump your blanching water out of the pot and add your blanched spinach to the empty pot. Add your hot bacon cream to the spinach and mix until it is the creaminess that you desire. For the spinach I added about a quart of the cream. Heat over medium heat until hot, and season well with salt and black pepper. Serve with you steak or any other protein of your choosing. Garnish with a bit of shredded parmesan cheese.
Bacon Creamed Spinach
Equipment
- Large Saute Pan
- 8 quart Pot
Ingredients
- 7 slices bacon thick sliced, medium diced
- 1 each yellow onion small diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 4 tbsp butter
- 6 tbsp AP flour
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 bags tender spinach 10 oz bags
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, render bacon until slightly brown.
- Add onions and garlic. Continue to cook for an additional 3 minutes or until the onions begin to brown.
- Add butter, and melt completely. Add flour and cook until the roux begins to darken.
- Whisk in chicken stock, followed by heavy cream. Season with salt and pepper.
- Bring water to a boil in large pot. Blanch spinach and remove from water, run under cold water. Squeeze out excess water. Rough chop squeezed spinach.
- Heat spinach and enough bacon cream to make the spinach creamy but not too much liquid.
- Serve with a garnish of parmesan cheese.
Are you ready for the crazy? This is what it’s like to multi task in a professional kitchen. Here we go!
If you are cooking all of these items for this dinner now is crunch time. Remove steaks from sous vide bath, and begin to cook those. Top potatoes with cheese mix, and return to oven. Fry onions, and set aside for garnish. The steaks should be browned on one side now, time to flip. Stir the bacon cream into the spinach and season. Continue to stir the spinach, check the potatoes, and watch the steaks. Once the steaks are done, remove from the pan and allow time too rest. Dump excess oil and bits from pan. Deglaze with red wine and reduce until almost dry. Stir spinach, check potatoes. Add veal stock, and a bit of beef base to the reduced red wine. Pull the potatoes and allow to sit. Stir the spinach. After reducing the veal stock by 3/4 add your butter. Remove from the heat and swirl to melt and incorporate into the sauce. Set aside once the sauce is thickened, do not return to the heat or else it will separate and be useless. Season with salt and pepper. Crazy huh? Now we need to get all this stuff to the plate, make it pretty, while making sure it is still hot, cooked correctly, and DON’T FORGET THE ONIONS!
Crispy Onion Strings
Equipment
- Deep Fryer
- Mandoline
Ingredients
- 1 each yellow onion cut into thin rings, about 1/8 " thick
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Thinly slice onions on mandoline, aim for 1/8" thick. Set aside in separate bowl.
- Cover sliced onions in buttermilk, mix gently to loosen rings and coat completely.
- Allow to soak for 10-15 minutes.
- On a plate, mix flour, Italian seasoning, and about a tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper.
- Remove onions from buttermilk and lightly shake to remove excess milk. Toss small batches of soaked onions in seasoned flour. Do not add too many onions to the flour, or you will end up with a large ball of onions.
- Fry coated onions in a 350 F deep fryer until the onions are golden brown and crispy. Allow to drain on a paper towel and set aside for snacking or to garnish.
Red Wine Pan Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups red wine
- 1 cup veal stock
- 1 each shallot minced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp beef base
- 8 tbsp butter
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- After you finish searing your steaks, remove them and any excess oil or crumbs from the pan. Add shallots and garlic and lightly saute until they begin to brown, 2-3 minutes.
- Deglaze pan with red wine.
- Reduce wine until almost evaporated.
- Add beef stock and beef base. Bring to boil.
- Reduce by 3/4 and remove from the heat.
- Add butter and swirl until the sauce has been thoroughly combined.
- Taste and season if necessary. DO NOT return to the heat, heat will break the sauce and it won't be useable.
- Serve with your steak and sides!
If you followed that last paragraph, you may be someone who thrives in a professional kitchen. It gets a little hectic sometimes. Whew, my hearts going and I made this on Friday. But that is it, welcome to the organized chaos that is professional cooking. I hope you had a good time, and I really hope all your food turned out good. If you are just dabbling in the world of home cooking, maybe try one or two of these recipes at a time, all at once for your first go might not turn out so good. But thank you for reading, I hope you made sense of this chaos. A like and a share would be wonderful, but until next time, cheers!