It's been some time since I last posted a recipe on here, so I decided it was time to cook up something yummy and document it. This is purely my own creation, I had no idea how the Bourbon Marinade would go, but figured it was worth a shot. I didn't really measure any of the ingredients, so I'll skip the traditional recipe format and just describe what I did. I like my steaks rare and still mooing.

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Pepper your steak and put it in a ziplock bag with a splash of bourbon. turn the bag every minute or so to make sure it marinates evenly.

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Roughly chop half an onion and add it into a warm pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Letting the pan heat up with the onion in it slowly cook it until soft. Then add in some sugar and a splash of white wine vinegar and crank up the heat. The sugar helps the onion caramelize nicely. Decant the onions into a bowl.

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Clean the pan with a paper towel and add in some diced bacon over a medium heat. After a minute of frying add in a couple of diced mushrooms. Turn up the heat and cook until the mushrooms are completely sweated out. Add a splash of white wine and reduce down. Add half the put-aside onion and a generous amount of stock and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

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While it's simmering make a basic roux by cooking 2 Tb of flour and 2 Tb of olive oil. Keep stirring to make sure it doesn't burn and bring off the heat when it starts to change colour.

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Grab the pot of gravy-in-the-making and strain out the solids and discard ( or keep for ravioli filling ). Leave gravy over a low heat to keep hot ( but not boiling ).

take the steak out of the marinade and pour marinade into gravy. Salt the steak on both sides. Bring a pan up to a high heat and add a splash of olive oil. Lay the steak in the oil, the pan should be really hot so you should hear a really strong sizzle.

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Cook for 2 minutes on that side and then turn it. That side should be nicely browned and will be your presentation side. Give it about 30 seconds and then pour in the gravy. Don't be afraid to top up the stock if it gets low.

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Turn down the heat and cook until steak reaches desired doneness. Wrap steak in foil and put aside to rest. Bring the gravy to a gentle simmer ( if it's not already ). Add in the rest of the onions and stir through just enough roux to thicken up and give it a nice gloss.

Use a pair of tongs and grab the onion from the gravy, make a bed for the steak with the onion. Put the steak on your plate, pouring any juices from resting back into the gravy. Drizzle gravy over the steak and serve.

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i'm hungry

*Will drop pants for stinky's food.*

Why did you hurt that poor steak ?

So how would you cook Saratoga?

How did it taste? Could you really taste the bourbon? How long did you leave it marinating for?

haha too boney, I wouldn't bother. Give me a barramundi or a tilapia and I'll do you up a nice asian style baked fish though :)

How did it taste? Could you really taste the bourbon? How long did you leave it marinating for?

It tasted great. By putting most of the gravy under the steak I could make sure the gravy didn't overpower the steak tastewise. The bourbon didn't give a super strong flavour to the steak, but it definately gave the steak a sweetness and helped with the caramelization of the presentation side. I could have poured some more bourbon into the pan and flambe'd it, but that would have been purely for showing off, I don't think it would have made much more difference.

You could have used a nicer bourbon.

Try Real McCoy next time it will taste heaps better.

So how would you cook Saratoga?

You wouldn't ... you keep it alive take it to a fish store and eat like a king for a week.

I can't cook steak to save myself. It's either well done and tough or still mooing.

You can come cook for me. That looks delish!

Jesus stinky, I think it's time you make an e-cookbook or something.

Grab the pot of gravy-in-the-making and strain out the solids and discard

Pretty sure there are laws against throwing out bacon.

do you UPS those meals?

You wouldn't ... you keep it alive take it to a fish store and eat like a king for a week.

umm, sorta an inside joke between stinky an me. I bought his big ol saratoga (60cm) off him a while back an he's still going strong an getting bigger (if you can believe that it can get bigger!).

Jesus stinky, I think it's time you make an e-cookbook or something.

Another vote for a Stinky e-cookbook/wikicookbook

nice troll fpot

yum :)

next qgl @ stinky's place!? ;p

(if you can believe that it can get bigger!)

They go over a meter don't they ?

what can you do with beer stinky?

this meal looks totally awesome by the way

yummy

needs more bacon salt

thats extreme

Stinky, some protips for ya courtesy of my wife (trained & qualified chef):

Nice to see a man in the kitchen having fun! Some ideas (take em or leave em).

The Roux
A roux is not a gravy - during preparation it should be textured more like breadcrumbs than a liquid. Use butter instead of oil and you can add milk for a bechemel, but you are probably really after a sauce not a true roux.

Instead for a nice steak sauce / gravy try using a stock made from bones & vegetables, seasoned with bay leaves, peppercorns, crushed garlic & thyme simmered down to make a jus li'e (thickened gravy).

Meat Juices
A few times in the recipe you make use of the meat juices - in particular at the end draining and re-adding the run-off from resting the rare steak back to the gravy. While this may sound like a good idea for a carnivore it will only detract from the taste of your sauce - rare steaks are rested for a reason.

You should discard marinade leftover, the purpose of the marinade is to infuse the meat with flavour, not to produce a sauce base. If you need a stronger bourbon flavour with your meal you can pour one!

Flambe
While it looks flashy, the purpose of flambe is to take the alcohol content out of the bourbon leaving the flavour intact, not to show off.

Hogfather, when's wifey posting her guide? =)

I've been hassling her to put her skills to work actually! I reckon there's a good cook book to be had. She's retired from pro cheffing now but has a whole suitcase full of awesome recipes from working in Europe and AU.

My old boss asked her for a good steak dianne recipe and she actually got a bit offended - its apparently like asking a magician for their secrets.

A QGL recipe & photo shoot might be a good test bed :)

Yeah mate, hit her up for it! I like reading Stinky's threads, he seems pretty creative, but it'd be pretty awesome to see what a professional chef could throw together for us forum tards. I really enjoy cooking too, I just need to get a little more out there and try things a little more creative.

hoggy, some photos of your missus in action would be a good start

and then some photos of her cooking

hogfather, im sure youve seen this on qgl so here it goes...

pics or lying :D

Thanks for the pro-tips mrs hogfather.

The Roux
A roux is not a gravy - during preparation it should be textured more like breadcrumbs than a liquid. Use butter instead of oil and you can add milk for a bechemel, but you are probably really after a sauce not a true roux.

Yeah I know there's a difference, but the resulting sauce was more like a gravy than a sauce, so that's what I called it. I use olive oil instead of butter to convince myself it's slightly healthier. My understanding of a roux is that you make it 1 part flour, 1 part fat. Interesting that you say it should be more like breadcrumbs in consistency.

Instead for a nice steak sauce / gravy try using a stock made from bones & vegetables, seasoned with bay leaves, peppercorns, crushed garlic & thyme simmered down to make a jus li'e (thickened gravy).

That's not far off what I usually do, but I generally base it off a red wine reduction rather than stock.

Meat Juices
A few times in the recipe you make use of the meat juices - in particular at the end draining and re-adding the run-off from resting the rare steak back to the gravy. While this may sound like a good idea for a carnivore it will only detract from the taste of your sauce - rare steaks are rested for a reason.

You should discard marinade leftover, the purpose of the marinade is to infuse the meat with flavour, not to produce a sauce base. If you need a stronger bourbon flavour with your meal you can pour one!

That's interesting. I'd just assumed that the juices from a cooked steak would give the sauce a meatier flavour. Same with the left over marinade. Good to know!

Flambe
While it looks flashy, the purpose of flambe is to take the alcohol content out of the bourbon leaving the flavour intact, not to show off.

Yeah I know, but whenever you watch a chef's show almost every time they throw anything into a pan it flames up ( probably not a real flambe, I think it's caused by the really hot oil in the pan atomizing and becoming very ignitable ). That doesn't seem to happen in real life, so generally put it down to the chef's showing off for the camera.

My old boss asked her for a good steak dianne recipe and she actually got a bit offended - its apparently like asking a magician for their secrets.

can second that.

One of my ex's was a chef (crazy bitch qualified as a pastry chef and then went and did it all over again as a normal chef...) an yeah, recipes to them are more important than national secrets.

While it's simmering make a basic roux by cooking 2 Tb of flour and 2 Tb of olive oil.

I must be the only geek here that read "2 Terabytes" when I saw "2 Tb".....

*sighs* I'm such a nerd....

ahah you failure moo