So in a spurt of spontaneity, I decided that I would do our apartment a service and cook off my last steak for Gordon. It was actually a REALLY good deal...I'm not much of a meat-eater, but I really couldn't resist. I got 3 good New York steaks for about $2.99/lb, and they were good quality steaks too.
<-- Check out that bad boy. Pretty hefty fellow eh?
Plus, I could make a sauce with it to get rid of my red wine from the last steak I made (you can see it on the very right of the bottom shelf...takes up quite a bit of space actually). So first challenge...find the steak! I think every time any of us need to find something, we have to unload the entire freezer first. I've also learned another nifty trick from Alton Brown (bless that man!). The fastest way to defrost meat is NOT (as you would think) leave it in hot water. That actually kind of sears the outside while leaving the inside of the meat still frozen - bad for us, good for bacteria. The same goes for cold water because you get bloody water if the juices drip
out, then you leave it standing contaminated like that for hours and then...well let's not go there. The trick is to keep it under a constant trickle (TRICKLE not flow) of cool running water. The meat is actually thawed by heat from the kinetic energy of the water's motion (I think) without getting cooked prematurely. You should try it, it's actually very efficient. The downside is that you just have to fight that built-in urge to turn off the faucet before you leave.
Steak with Red Wine Mushroom sauce:
Ingredients:
1 steak (New York Strip)
2-4 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp Montreal Steak seasoning
1 onion, sliced
1 cup red wine
8 oz baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
8 oz baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
Tools:
1 medium saucepan Baking pan
2. Wash off the salt. Add about 1 tsp Montreal Steak seasoning to each side
3. Place a saucepan on medium-high heat and let the steak stand on it fat-side down. You want to melt some of the fat to keep the steak from burning when you fry it.
3. Once the saucepan is lubricated, turn the steak over onto its flat side and fry on medium-high heat until it is nicely browned. Mine took about 5-7 minutes, but keep in mind, my baby is pretty big.
4. Do the same with the opposite side.
6. At this point, you want to test your steak by sticking a knife into the very middle (that's where it cooks the slowest) and peaking in. If it still looks too bloody for you, put it on a baking pan, pop it into the oven at about 450F, and check on it occasionally. After it's done, cover loosely with foil and let rest for about 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, add the onion slices to the steak pan (with all its burnt goodness stuck on the bottom) and sear them until they pick up a nice dark crust around the edges. Turn them as little as you can get away with.
9. Allow to simmer on high heat for about 20 minutes, until the sauce has become viscous.
10. Pour onto the steak and SERVE!
We served it with garlic bread and beer...a totally macho dinner and oh so unhealthy. Gordon had a field day. He even managed to ease his way out of the salad because we didn't have dressing to go with it. 
