Recipe: Steak au Poivre with Balsamic Reduction Sauce, Allergen-Friendly

After returning from the Columbus, OH road trip, and having eaten very simply and plainly, I wanted steak with balsamic reduction sauce for dinner. Don’t know why exactly, I’ve never made it before but it sounded luscious. I did a quick google search and found this super easy recipe from Epicurious. All I needed were steaks which I purchased at Whole Foods, everything else I had in my pantry. I do love a pantry based meal. I served with roasted asparagus and steamed buttered rice. Simple and lovely balanced meal.

Recipe Notes:
I use Morton’s Coarse Kosher salt.
I didn’t measure out 2 T of peppercorns, I just ground some pepper in my mill until it looked like enough.
I used Horizon Organic butter.
I used Lucini Olive Oil.
I used Fairway Market Balsamic vinegar.
Whole Foods has steaks on sale, huge three inch steaks that were about one pound. Oof too big. I asked the butcher to cut one of those steak into thirds, each weighing about 1/3 of a pound, much more manageable and a much quicker cook and cheaper, too!


Recipe: Steak au Poivre with Balsamic Reduction Sauce
Adapted from Epicurious

2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
2 3/4-inch-thick steaks (1/3 pound each)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar


Coarsely grind peppercorns in mortar and pestle or using in your pepper mill, grind until you have a little mound of ground pepper. Pat steaks dry and coat both sides with peppercorns, pressing to adhere. Season with kosher salt.

Heat oil with 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Reduce heat to moderate and cook steaks, about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.

Transfer steaks to a platter. Add vinegar to skillet and deglaze by boiling over high heat then reduce to a simmer until reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in 1-2 tablespoons butter until melted and the sauce is luscious. Drizzle over steaks.

Swooning is allowed.