Happy 100th Birthday Julia . . . Steak Diane

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In honor of Julia Child's birthday (would have been 100 years old today), I am reposting for my newest readers, this post about the first recipe that I ever made from Ms. Child, originally posted in the earlier days of this blog on in September, 2009.  This post has been read over 8,500 times via Google!  It's a super-winner classic in my family that never ever fails to please.  Bon Appetit!

If you're looking for a fast, but impressive dinner for either you and your sweetie or for your guests, Steak Diane is a real winner.  It is so good AND so easy that my kids made it (with some supervision) for their dates before they would go to a school dance in high school. One of the beauties of Steak Diane is that you can do all of the prepping before guests come to your house, have appetizers and cocktails with them (instead of being stuck in the kitchen), and THEN quickly saute the steaks and SERVE!

The only changes I made to Ms. Julia's respected recipe is:  I added more garlic! Sometimes, I'll also saute sliced mushrooms in butter and throw those in the sauce, but this time, I didn't want another trip to the store to get the mushrooms! So you decide. Some recipes even add a little bit of cream, which sounds wonderful to me, although I've never added it.....just kept to Julia's recipe plus my addition of garlic.

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So in honor of the book and movie about her life, I prepared Steak Diane, the first recipe of hers that I ever made and from her Julia Child & Company cookbook series.

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You can still see all of the spill stains and notes on my cookbook below!

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Steak Diane
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Here's what you need to make the dish:

4 .8-oz steaks, cut 1/2" thick (use filet mignon/tenderloin, New York strip or rib-eyes)

1-1/2 Tbsp. capers OR green peppercorns packed in water, drained

a couple drops of soy sauce

olive oil

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Ahead of time: For placing on the side of the stove area, put all of the following on a tray or platter; place them in the refrigerator and when ready to begin cooking, take this tray/platter of ingredients directly to the stove area:

1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil (if you use olive oil, do not heat too high or you'll burn it)

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup minced scallions

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 - 2 Tbsp. fresh, chopped garlic

a small bowl containing a blend of: 1 Tbsp. cornstarch blended with 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard and 1 cup of fragrant beef bouillon

parsley for garnish

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Also ahead of time, place on the side of the stove:

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A bottle of Worcestershire sauce

Half of a lemon

Cognac

Port or Madeira

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Also have ready by the stove:
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12" frying pan

2 large forks for turning and rolling up the steaks

2 large spoons (one for the sauce stirring, and one for tasting only -- no double dipping)

a butter knife

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Here's what you need to do to prepare the steaks:
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Ahead of time:

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Trim all of the steaks of fat and gristle.

With a meat mallet, pound steaks to slightly enlarge and tenderize them; don't make very thin.

Crush the drained peppercorns with the back of a spoon.

Spread a little on one side of each steak.

Add one drop of soy sauce and olive oil on that same side of the steak.

With the forks, roll up each steak and place on a platter.

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Cover and refrigerate until cooking time.

These only take a few minutes to cook, not hours!

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So just when you're ready to cook the steaks:

Make sure that the side of the stove has everything set up and ready within easy reach.

Preheat the frying pan to a reasonably hot temperature.

Pour 1 Tbsp. of oil into the pan with 2 Tbsp of butter.

Butter will foam up and then subside.

Just as the butter begins to brown, unroll 2 steaks and immediately place in the pan.

Saute' for 30 - 40 SECONDS on one side.

With the forks, flip and saute' the other sides of the 2 steaks.

The steaks will barely have a color and will become slightly springy to the tough -- for RARE. Don't overcook these little things!

Quickly roll the steaks back up with the forks and replace on the platter (or a warm platter, since the original platter was chilled).

Continue to saute the remaining steaks, 2 at a time, with the same amount of oil and butter as before.

Continue to roll them back up and place on the platter.

When finished sauteing the steaks, add 2 large spoonfuls of butter into the pan.

When butter foams, stir in a 1/4 cups of scallions and parsley.

Cook for one minute.

Add the garlic.

Stir in the bouillon.
Stir for one minute.

Add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce.

Squeeze a small amount of juice from the 1/2 lemon.

Add one drop of cognac.

Add one drop of Port or Madeira.

Throw in about another Tbsp or two of capers or green peppercorns to float around in the sauce.
With the forks, one by one, unroll each steak and bathe them in the bubbling sauce for about one minute, turning and dipping with your forks.

Place immediately on warm dinner plates.

Spoon sauce over them.

Garnish with parsley.

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Serve with your favorite vegetable. I prefer asparagus and Dauphinous Potatoes (type the recipe name in the search box on this blog and it will appear).
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Don 't let all of these ingredients scare you! Seriously, my kids made this in high school for their dates. It's all about having everything done ahead of time and placed right next to the stove when you're ready to cook. These steaks are literally on your table in less then 5 minutes!

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So there you have it!  Straight from the French Chef, Julia Child with a little extra garlic from me!

Mangia!

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Salsa Canning Mania!

I have been canning homemade salsa every summer with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro from our gardens since 1994.  But as a result, I've also created somewhat of a monster situation in my family . . . meeting the demand by family members for this salsa!  Bill and I usually can three times per summer, at 20 pints per large batch.  Whenever we return to the Midwest for our annual summer visits we had better include a bushel of S.C. peaches and a box of canned salsa or we're read the Italian riot act of disappointment by the family!

Canning salsa is an event, baby!  I mean if you haven't canned yet, just let me warn you, it's time-consuming, steamy-hot, and often back-breaking work . . . but oh so worth it in terms of the rewarding pleasure given in return.  Plus you know that you are continuing on an age-old tradition of food preservation!  My husband and I can together (isn't that romantic?) . . . it's a bonding thing!  And yesterday we just finished a second batch of our family's favorite salsa.  Because it really requires a lot of time and energy, we decided that two large batches was enough for this summer since Bill is returning to teaching classes for fall semester this week and my back isn't ready yet to handle this arduous job without him.

For those of you who have been reading my blog since 2008, you may have noticed that I never prepare Mexican food . . . simply because we'd rather go to our favorite Mexican eatery in town to enjoy it where they do such a superb job of preparing the food.  I don't even bother to try and replicate Mexican cuisine at home.  Canning salsa, on the other hand, is the one and only exception.

this is about 1/3rd of the jars that we canned; the other jars were already in the pantry and we were too tired to pull them back out again just for a photo!

Since we started canning salsa, we've never purchased another commercially produced jar of salsa EVER!  The flavor of super fresh summer tomatoes simply cannot be topped!  Plus it's really healthy!  As far as a recipe, we don't have one, cooking by instinct the way that my mother taught me.  But we include the typical basics that everyone loves in salsa:  garden-fresh tomatoes (and we use all varieties for a more complex flavor), green peppers, onions, jalapeño peppers, and little personal twists here and there.  We also make a variety of different spiced versions depending on the type of chili peppers used:  serranos, jalapeños, chipotles, etc.  The final acceptability of flavor is simply achieved by tasting, tasting, tasting until it is just right!  Some of my family prefers this salsa as plain and simple as possible, others like it spiced up, and others like it as hot as the sun itself.

Another thing about our salsa, we don't use a food processor as some people do to save time.  We like ours 'salsa crude' or chunky.  This means that you need to set aside a nice amount of time to sit and chop all the ingredients.  Honestly, this is one of my favorite things involved in cooking.  I just love the process of being with the ingredients, smelling, touching, and tasting as I go.  Even the chopping sound on the cutting boards is like a welcome song to me.

Sort of a zen-state in cooking! :-D

we like our salsa on the thicker side, so this requires a good hour of simmering on the stove.  you can see how chunky we also make our salsa.

when cooking large batches of anything, we make quite a mess on the stove!

Here is a link for a good tutorial on canning salsa if you need one:  canning salsa instructions.  We can numerous sizes since we give so many jars away as gifts.  We've started to use more 1/2 pint jars simply because we give so much of this salsa away and it's getting pretty expensive.  The pint size jar is our most popular requested size.  The larger quart sizes, although used the least, are great to use to serve at parties and get-togethers such as this summer's family reunion.  When people stop by with unexpected goodies, we always have a jar of salsa on hand to give to friends in return.  I mail tons of this stuff to my sister in Iowa, our son in Chicago, and our daughter and hubby in Tennessee.

It's just darn good stuff with absolutely no preservatives, completely organically grown in our garden (that's right, no spraying any stuff on our garden allowed!).  Our veggies are also watered completely with natural well water.  I'm not sure what the caloric content is, but since it's all veggies, it can't be that high!

And now that I've made myself completely hungry, I think I'll go have some chips and salsa!


Mangia!


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Wordless Wednesday ~ ~ It's a Rough Life!

Buckeye and Mowee on Bill's "man-chair" (pronounced "Maui" since he arrived on our doorstep before a trip to Maui last year).

Buckeye and Mowee chillin' on the cool wood floor while I'm in the kitchen

Abby and Mowee nap together too!

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