c's steak au poivre

With the threat of wintery weather all weekend, we decided to not even consider going out to eat. Instead, we ventured out on Saturday morning to the Fresh Market to pick up what we needed to eat out, but in. I love to browse at Fresh Market, but it didn't take us long to get drawn in by the beautiful Hereford filet mignon and C's idea to have steak au poivre (a French dish consisting of a steak coated in cracked peppercorns). Traditionally it's just coated on one side, but C likes them on the side too (and a little gorgonzola crumbled on top never hurts).

Our method:

Crack a pile of whole peppercorns with a rolling pin, and then warm them in a little olive oil over low heat for 15 minutes.



Dip steak into peppercorn mixture and coat one side completely.





Heat oven to 450°

Meanwhile, heat a pat of butter and a little olive oil in a cast iron pan until it starts to shimmer. Sear steaks until you have a nice crust on both sides (3-4 minutes per side)


(one au poivre and one salt/pepper steak shown)

Once the steaks are seared, move them to the hot oven (here we used a sheet pan, but if your searing pan is oven safe, just throw it in the oven)



These steaks were fairly thick, so it took about 7 minutes for medium rare. Yum.