Main · 1 hour · Serves 2

Seared strip steak with red wine reduction and potato purée

This is the plate I'd cook for someone I wanted to impress, and it's less work than it looks. The steak takes ten minutes. The sauce is made in the pan the steak just left, while the steak rests. The purée is the only part that asks for patience, and you can make it first and hold it warm. Everything lands on the plate at once, which is the whole trick of a restaurant dinner.

By Jarrett Kahler

Seared steak with red wine reduction

Method

  1. Salt the steak early.Pat the steak dry and salt it generously on all sides. Leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to overnight. Take it out 30 minutes before cooking.
  2. Start the potatoes in cold water.Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water by an inch, and salt the water well. Bring to a simmer and cook until a knife slides through with no resistance, 15 to 20 minutes. Starting cold cooks them evenly to the center.
  3. Purée and hold.Drain well and let them steam dry in the colander for two minutes. Pass them through a ricer or food mill back into the warm pot (never a blender; it turns them to glue). Beat in the butter a few cubes at a time, then the warm milk, until silky. Season, cover, and keep warm over the lowest heat.
  4. Sear hard.Heat the oil in a heavy stainless or cast-iron skillet over high heat until it just starts to smoke. Lay the steak in and leave it for 2 to 3 minutes, until a deep brown crust forms. Flip and repeat. Turn it on its edge to render the fat cap for a minute.
  5. Baste with butter.Lower the heat to medium. Add the butter, garlic, and herbs. When the butter foams, tilt the pan and spoon it over the steak continuously for a minute or two, flipping once, until an instant-read thermometer reads 125°F in the center for medium-rare.
  6. Rest.Move the steak to a rack or board and rest it for 8 to 10 minutes. It will climb a few degrees as it sits. Make the sauce now.
  7. Build the reduction.Pour off all but a teaspoon of fat. Over medium heat, add the shallot and stir for 30 seconds. Add the wine and scrape up every brown bit with a flat-edged spoon. Boil until reduced to about a quarter cup and syrupy, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the stock and reduce again by about half, until it coats a spoon.
  8. Finish and plate.Off the heat, swirl in the cold butter and any juices from the resting steak. Taste; add salt, and a few drops of vinegar if it tastes flat. Slice the steak against the grain, sprinkle with flaky salt, and plate it beside a spoonful of purée with the sauce spooned around, not over.

Chef's note

Don't skip the rack when resting. A steak resting flat on a plate steams its own crust soft from underneath. And trust the thermometer, not the clock: thickness and how cold the steak was going into the pan change everything. Pull it at 125°F for medium-rare, 130°F for medium.

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