Filet mignon, as it turns out:
Back in October, I made a bet with my friend that I could go the entire month as a vegetarian. No beef, no chicken, no seafood. At steak (get it?) was a steak dinner on my friend when he was back in town next. Despite breaking my leg and winding up confined to the couch for the second half of the month, I made it through the challenge, and was eagerly looking forward to the steak dinner that awaited me.
My friend is now back in town for another week or so, and last night, we fired up the grill to celebrate. This was the first time that I had fired up the grill since late September; at some point, I lost a caster moving the grill from the back patio to the garage, so we had to shim the grill up with some boxes for stability, but it was amazing regardless.
Being mostly vegetarian, my friend declined to participate in steakfest, opting instead for some marinated portabello mushrooms on the grill. We marinaded those in some punishment scotch, soy sauce, Dijon mustard and Sriracha, and they actually turned out very well. Since I was working with filet mignon, I chose to forgo the marinades and dry rubs for my steak, taking it with just some salt and fresh black pepper.
Accompanying the steak were garlic mashed redskin potatoes and wilted spinach with toasted garlic. We didn’t really want to wait an hour for the garlic to roast in the oven, so instead we carmelized it on the stove for about 10 minutes in a little olive oil. The result was some incredibly flavorful garlic, some of which we put on some bread and some of which went into the potatoes, which were mixed in with some goat cheese for a smooth creamy texture that prevented the potatoes from drying out 15 minutes into the meal. They were even smooth the next day. I’ll have to remember that one.
It was a fantastic meal. Was it worth giving up steaks and good sushi for a month? Absolutely. Would I do it again? We’ll see.
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