Steak Frites Anniversary Dinner

This week Mr. Frickspicks and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. Like everyone else we had to postpone our trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Of course, sipping a Mai Tai while listening to the waves and watching the sunset on Maui is one of our favorite memories but it wasn’t meant to be this year. I still wanted to make it a nice celebration for this anniversary. We are not eating out yet so a wonderful home cooked dinner was in the works. As luck would have it, The Wall Street Journal had published a recipe that I really wanted to try, Steak Frites! Y’all!!!!! This was THE BEST STEAK EVER! Hands down. It smelled so good and tasted as good as my Great Aunt Ethel’s cooking. And that is saying something! I’m sharing the secret to the best Steak Frites and it does involve BUTTER and no substitutions!

You will need

A cast iron skillet, 1 8-10 ounce filet mignon 1 1/2 inches thick, 2 tbs of good high fat butter. You let the meat and the butter come to room temperature for at least 1 hour before cooking. A spring of rosemary, a spring of thyme. When ready to start pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Coat steak all over with flaky salt ( I use Maldon) and a generous quantity of coarsely ground black pepper. Heat your skillet over high for about 5 minutes until it smokes. Then coat the skillet with 1 tablespoon of a neutral oil such as canola.

Set steak in pan (yep its going to sizzle and make a mess all over your stove, but it’s worth it, trust me!) Do not touch it for 2 minutes, then with a tong (no forks to pierce the steak no no no) lift it to turn. If it still clings to the pan cook it 30 seconds more. Once steak releases fully, cooked side should be a deep golden almost brown. Flip it and cook, undisturbed, for 2 minutes.

Transfer skillet to center rack in the oven. For rare, cook 4 minutes, for medium-rare cook 6 minutes. Remember that the steak will continue to cook on stovetop so stop slightly short of done to your liking.

Return skillet to stove. Off heat, add butter, 1 spring of rosemary, 1 spring of thyme and 1 clove of garlic bruised with the flat of the knife. Tip pan toward you and spoon butter over steak lifting occasionally so the butter coats bottom of meat, about 1 1/2 minutes.

Transfer steak to a plate along with with pan juices, cover plate with foil and let steak rest 10 minutes before eating to allow the juices to redistribute through meat. Serve immediately with french fries and a glass of red wine. (we substituted mashed potatoes, garlic bread and veggies)

This recipe will be a family favorite forever. I hope you try it and let me know if you do.

As always, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Stay well, stay safe and Bon Appetite!

XOXO, Kim