Accounting for Taste

You’ll impress not only your significant other, but yourself as well when you make this Steak Tips with Mushrooms and Blue Cheese recipe. Even though it’s a weekend and/or special occasion, you may still want quick and easy. To make the decadent meal even faster, you could pair it with frozen steak fries instead of homemade.

The savory combination of mushrooms and blue cheese can’t be beat when added to tender steak tips. Now what are steak tips? Also known as flap meat, they can be sold as whole steaks, cubes, or strips. How convenient, we just happened to have a bag of four flap meat strips in the freezer!

To ensure a substantial crust, get the pan very hot before adding the meat. Cooking steaks in a pan that isn’t properly preheated leads to meat that overcooks before developing a good crust. To build layers of flavor prepare the sauce in the same pan in which you cooked steaks. The browned bits left behind—known as fond—add valuable flavor to the sauce.

To ensure that most of the meat would end up medium-rare, we decided not to cut the strips into 2″ pieces, until after it was cooked and plated. Whisking half of the blue cheese into the sauce adds richness to the dinner and ensures that each bite is packed with blue cheese flavor. I was sooo excited to eat, I totally forgot to add the chopped chive garnish.

Our veggie side was char-roasted broccoli rabe. Don’t be alarmed that the leaves almost blacken, they taste great! To prepare, rinse, then chop off the bottom inch or two, and toss the remaining stalks with 2 tablespoons of peanut oil (which has a high smoke point), salt, pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast along with the potato wedges in a 450° oven for 15 minutes. (The potatoes take about 35 minutes.)

This wold be a great Valentine’s Day ❤ dinner for the meat lover(s) in your family.

Steak Tips with Mushrooms, Blue Cheese and Steak Fries

Servings: 4
Time: 35 min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

STEAKS

1 ½ lbs sirloin steak tips, cut into 2-inch pieces (we left our strips whole)
Salt and pepper
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
4 large, meaty portobello mushroom caps, halved and sliced thin
2 shallots, halved and sliced thin
½ cup chicken broth
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
2 Tbsp. minced fresh chives, more for potatoes if desired

STEAK FRIES

2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1/2″ wedges
2 Tbs. peanut or grapeseed oil
1/2 tsp. salt + 1/4 tsp. pepper

Directions

Pat steak tips (or strips) dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking.
Add steak tips and cook until well browned all over, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to serving platter and tent with foil.
Add remaining oil, mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon salt to empty skillet. Cover and cook over medium heat until softened, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add shallots and cook until softened, about 1 minute. Stir in broth, cream, and any accumulated beef juices and simmer, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
Off heat, whisk in ¼ cup cheese. Pour sauce over meat and sprinkle with remaining cheese and chives. Serve.

Cooking Fries:

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 450°F.
Toss the potato wedges on a large rimmed, parchment-lined, baking sheet with the oil, salt and pepper, arranging in a single layer.
Roast until the potatoes begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Turn with a spatula, continue roasting until browned and crisp, 15 to 20 minutes more.
Divide amongst serving plates and sprinkle with chopped chives, if desired.