Five-star meals don’t need to be all-day productions. Sometimes, the best meals require the least amount of work. Consider a pan-seared steak with mashed potatoes. All you need is a frying pan, a pot with water, steak, potatoes and some seasoning. This combination on its own is enough to wow your dinner guests, but add a drizzle of a balsamic red wine reduction, and you’ll have everyone at the table thinking you spent all day pouring over a hot stove.
To make things even simpler, this reduction can be cooked ahead of time and reheated over the stove, just before dinner. To complement the acidity of the balsamic, use a red wine with slightly sweeter notes, like Owen Roe’s Chapel Block Syrah. This robust wine is bursting with blackberry, vanilla and oak flavors; a perfect pairing for this savory steak dish.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30–40 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
For the reduction:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup Owen Roe’s Chapel Block Syrah
1 cup beef stock
Pepper to taste
For the steaks:
2 (12 ounce) New York strip steaks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Remove steaks from fridge and season heavily with fresh cracked pepper and sea salt. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, sauté garlic in olive oil until it just begins to sweat.
Add balsamic vinegar and cook until vinegar has evaporated into a syrup.
Whisk in red wine and continue cooking until the liquid has reduced by two-thirds.
Add the beef broth and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid has again reduced by two-thirds. Add pepper to taste. (Optional: strain reduction to remove garlic.)
Once the reduction is ready, it can either be set aside for later or kept on warm while you cook the steaks.
To cook the steaks, heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Once heated, add the steaks and cook for 30 seconds, or until lightly seared. Turn steaks over and repeat.
Once both sides of each steak have been seared, use tongs to turn the steaks on their sides, being sure to sear every edge, so as to seal in the flavor.
Once all sides and edges have been lightly seared, add butter and garlic to pan.
Continue cooking steaks on each side, rotating every minute until the desired wellness has been achieved.
Remove steaks from pan and let rest a few minutes before slicing.
Plate steak slices alongside mashed potatoes or another side, drizzle with reduction and serve.
