Okay – so I’ve been experimenting with cooking and really
having fun with it…so I muddled a couple of the Steak Marsala recipes and
created my own. Here it is:
Stuff you need to have or buy:
4 – 6 Steaks
Olive oil
1 red onion diced
1 pound mushrooms sliced
Kosher salt
Black pepper
2 TBS butter
2 cups Marsala wine
2 TBS Beef Base
1 ½ cup water
1 TBS Minced Garlic (one or two cloves)
1 TBS Flour
Hardware:
Large Saucepan/Deep skillet
Grill (or stovetop grill pan) OR Pan to cook steaks in
Whisk
OKAY first I have to note a few things…I used sirloins
because that’s what I had handy, but I really think any steaks will do – even
the mock tenders they sell would be good if you just tenderize them a little
bit. Same goes for red onion – it’s what
I had, I’m sure a white onion, yellow onion or shallot will do nicely if you
have those…key on those is dice ‘em.
Secondly, I used button mushroom (though many of the recipes
called for crimini/baby bellas or portabellas) because they were on sale for
1.99 and I wasn’t going to spend twice as much for them…I’m cheap.
I did bother to buy kosher salt though…it was 94
cents for the container, and I know I’ll use it.
Butter – I sprung for real butter (it’s on sale right now
with the holidays) and I opted for unsalted…knowing this dish is generally a salty
dish, I didn’t want to add any unnecessary salt in the butter.
Marsala wine – I have a friend that said they pick up theirs
in the grocery store, but I actually hit a liquor store and got it for about
$11 – and you can probably make the sauce 3 or even 4 times with that amount of
wine. I didn’t really measure out how much wine I used either…I’m looking at
about 1/3 of the bottle gone – so I’m guessing approximately 1 ½ to 2 cups.
BEEF BASE!!! O…mygoodness…. Okay I found this wonderful
thing called “Better than Bouillon Beef Base” you can get it in the broth
section of your store, and it’s soooo very flavorful. It’s a paste the comes in a jar…BUT if you
don’t want to use that, you can use beef broth – you’ll need one full can of
beef broth. ALSO if you are making chicken marsala, sub beef for chicken
broth…and obviously you’d delete the 1 ½ cups water if you use the hydrated
beef base.
EVERYTHING else looks self explanatory – so here we go.
First set your steaks out, rub them with olive oil and season
with kosher salt and pepper. Allow them to sit at room temperature for about 30
minutes, so you are dealing with a piece of meat that is room temperature.
While you are waiting go ahead and mix your beef base with
water (it’ll make a stronger broth than the packaging suggests, but you want
that)…and set it aside for later.
Set your saucepan/skillet to heat up, once hot melt your
butter (it should make that lovely sizzle noise). Once the pan is warm again (careful not to
brown your butter) seer your steaks – this is not the cook through, but to just
grab some flavor from them and sear them.
Now you can technically cook them now, to let them rest before eating,
but I just seared them (making sure to turn them only once) and moved them onto
my stovetop grill pan to finish cooking til they were about medium, I can’t do
a well done steak – bleck.
Now you should have a few lovely bits of steak on your
saucepan/skillet and you are so happy because now you will dump your onions and
garlic into the pan and add your mushrooms – yes, all of them. I told you that you needed a large saucepan. DON’T
add oil – I know there’s temptation, but don’t – the mushrooms will add lots of
juice to your pan shortly. If you aren’t a HUGE fan of mushrooms, you can do
just one 8 oz package instead of two…. Now this is going to take a minute and
I’m impatient so I kept stirring and testing mushrooms just to make sure they
were still yummy. They were…in case you
were concerned. While the mushrooms
start to shrink the liquid in the pan will grow – you will use a slotted spoon
to remove the mushrooms and onions after about 5-7 minutes **did you check to
see if you steak needs to be flipped yet? **
Try to get all the mushrooms out (and into a bowl – they are going back
in the sauce shortly) but if some onions hang out, don’t stress.. **DO NOT TURN
DOWN THE HEAT**
Once you have just the liquid in the pan, put the flour in
and whisk like the wind…I guess it’s creating sort of a rue…once it’s all
clumpy, time for wine. Pour your wine into
the pan and this is where the whisk really gives you a work out….whisk whisk
whisk it up!! **STILL OVE THE HEAT** At
first I was kind of wigging because there were clumps – keep whisking they will
smooth out (remember though, you left a few onions in because that stupid
slotted spoon didn’t get ‘em all – so don’t freak). Relatively smooth – check – add your broth
(that you mixed up earlier – or out of the can). Whisk it…let it boil. If you think it’s too watery – then mix
another tablespoon of flour with either wine or more beef broth, and whisk it
into the sauce.
Now, a lot of recipes say you should put the steak into the
sauce, but I prefer to keep them separate until they get to my plate (mostly
because I have particular children)…SO I served them separately…but that’s
really all you do.
Finish cooking the steak, allow it to rest a few – and
serve. I chose to serve my steak with
garlic mashed taters and broccoli – but next time I think I’d choose a
different veggie…try something kind of light and bright – salad, steamed green
beans, carrots…my favorite would be asparagus....or maybe broccoli without the
cheese woulda been good. This is the
recipe I looked at most when adapting:
And this is the beef base that I use:
Sorry – I can’t just type a recipe normal, I have to include
an obscene amount of commentary…BUT bottom line is it was a SUPER easy recipe,
tastebudtacular deliciousness and DEFINITELY going to make it again. If my recipe is to talky – try the linked
one. SOOOO good.
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