Valentine’s Day is a mere week away. And, guess what, I’ve got my plan sorted! It’s a really good one, so I encourage you all to steal it. You’re welcome!

Here’s the game plan:

1. The day before Valentine’s Day, Thursday, the 13th, from 5-7 PM, go to Fruit Wine Co. for a Valentine’s wine tasting and Tremonte’s pop-up. Come hang out with me, try some wine, and stock up on wine and desserts for Val’s Day.
   • Pre-orders are open now in my online shop. You can even make this a Galentine’s Day event. Bring your girls! Am I planning two holidays now?
2. Procure steak, potatoes, and salad makings for your Valentine’s Day dinner.
3. Make steak frites (my very favorite meal) with your sweetie(s). Cooking instructions below.
4. Enjoy your delicious dinner, wine, and dessert
5. What happens next is up to you

So, let’s get into a little more detail on the food side of things…

First off, there’s my Valentine’s Eve pop-up at Fruit Wine Co. Honestly, I thought I was going to get over to the East side during the holidays, but things booked up so quickly, I didn’t end up making it. I owe you Eastsiders a visit. So, this is it!

I’ll be bringing you some very special Valentine’s Day items. I only bust these guys out once a year, and you will not want to miss it.

I’m bringing back my little six-inch chocolate, olive oil, heart cakes. The olive oil makes these cakes incredibly moist and adds depth to the rich chocolate flavor. It also makes the cakes last for days – not that you’ll manage to keep them around that long. These cakes also just happen to be vegan and happen to be damn delicious.

I’ll also be bringing my Valentine’s rainbow cookies. The layers are my signature almond cake in shades of red, pink, and white. There is strawberry jam between the layers, and they are coated in marbled white and pink strawberry chocolate.

I’ve also got a new guy, Valentine’s Occhi di Bue. You may know them as Linzer cookies, their Austrian name, or, maybe as the “IKEA cookies.” Anyway, these are the Italian version, and they are so good! The pasta frolla I use for these cookies has a decent proportion of almond flour, giving them a rich texture. I also added a touch of my Grandma Mary’s Meyer lemon zest, which perfectly compliments the Ayako Family Italian plum jam sandwiched between the layers 🍋👌🏼

So, now that you’ve got your wine and dessert covered, it’s time to talk dinner.

Steak Frites

This is my go-to meal for special occasions. Perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Let’s start with the frites, because that recipe is not my own. We use Kenji Lopez Alt’s instructions for cooking fries at home. And, yes, we do own a deep fryer. It was a pandemic quarantine purchase. We placed a lot of takeout orders, in those days, and realized there was just no way to keep takeout fries from becoming sad and soggy. So, Chris made it his mission to perfect the art of making fries at home.

If you are lucky enough to have two people on dinner prep – I recommend having one person on fry duty while the other is on steaks.

Now, about those steaks. I am going to teach you how to make perfectly cooked steak. I will also show you how to make a little red wine pan sauce to go with it.

I’ve got opinions on how this should be done.

First, let’s talk about the steaks themselves. I know, for a while now, it’s been all the rage to pick out esoteric cuts of meat. If that’s your jam, don’t let me yuck your yum. But, I usually pick a basic, bone-in New York strip. It’s got to be bone-in because the bone is a flavor enhancer, and it helps maintain the steak’s structure. Also, I know that grass-fed beef is more sustainable… And, don’t get me wrong, I am for sustainable food-ways. but I’m just going to give it to you straight. I don’t love the gaminess of grass fed beef. What do I like is, good, old fashioned, grain-fed flavor.

I really honed my steak skills when I worked at the delightfully classic Tornado Steak House in Madison, Wisconsin. It was the kind of place that froze in time in the 1960’s. Every meal started with a relish tray and an entire loaf of bread. The steaks were thick, the drinks were strong, and Moon River was on the playlist.

I developed a taste for that clean, Midwest, corn-fed, beef flavor. To be honest, I can’t get exactly that kind of beef in Seattle. But, what I can get are USDA Prime, grain-fed, bone-in NY strips from Safeway. It’s decent, clean-tasting beef, and they’re usually on sale. So, that’s what I do.

Now, the first step in my recipe is salting your meat. There are Type A and Type B ways to do this

Type A: Bust out the calculator and kitchen scale. The amount of salt you want to use is 1% of the amount of meat you have by weight. Weigh each of your steaks. (I always weigh in grams.) Then just move the decimal place left two spaces to determine how much salt you need.

Type B: Give each steak what I would call a “heavy dusting” of salt on each side. It is not a light dusting. It is also not a total coating.

To be honest, I usually go Type B, because I don’t always feel like pulling my kitchen scale out when I’m cooking (I’m not baking, what do I think this is, work?). Either way, the meat can be salted up to a day before cooking. Even 30 minutes ahead of time is enough for the salt to penetrate the meat.

As for the cooking, you will need an instant-read meat thermometer. I know there are other folkloric ways of telling when your steaks are cooked, but why put yourself through all that poking and prodding for an unreliable method? The thermometer doesn’t lie. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the meat. Pass the middle and then draw back slightly. This ensures an accurate reading

I recommend medium-rare for the best steak-eating experience. I will give you temps for the other levels of done-ness, but I strongly suggest medium-rare.

Steak Done-ness Finish Temps:

Rare	120-125F
Medium rare	130-135F
Medium	140-145F
Medium well	150-155F
Well	160-165F

To cook the steaks, I use a combo of direct and indirect heating. First, I give it a good sear in a pan, on the stovetop. Then, I finish the job in the oven. I learned this method years ago in a class with Darin Gagner at The Pantry. It changed my steak game.

Had enough of my meat opinions yet?! I could go on all day, but I think it’s time we get down to business.

New York Strip Steaks

Note: I do not give precise amounts in the ingredients list for this recipe. I will describe how to scale the recipe to any amount of steaks you have in the instructions.

Ingredients:

Thick-cut bone-in New York strip steaks

Kosher salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

High heat oil (ex: canola or ghee)

1. Salt your steak 30 minutes to one day before you want to make it. Use either the Type A or Type B methods described above.
2. Pre-heat over to 300F. Set up a sheet pan with a cooling rack placed on top.
3. Remove steaks from fridge about 30 minutes before cooking. The salt will have brought moisture to the surface of the steaks, so gently pat dry with paper towels.
4. Season steaks generously with fresh-cracked black pepper.
5. Pre-heat a 12-inch saute pan to medium high. Add about 1T of oil to the pan.
6. Place the more attractive side of the steak face-down in the pan. You may be able to fit two steaks in the pan at once, depending on their size. Make sure you leave about an inch of space between them. You may need to work in shifts, one steak at a time, to avoid crowding the pan.
7. Sear steak for about 3 minutes, or until it develops a burnished, dark brown appearance.
8. Flip steak and sear for about 3 more minutes.
9. Remove steak from pan. Do not clean the pan. You will use it for the sauce. Put the steaks on the sheet pan set it up with the cooling rack. That little uplift on the rack will help you avoid a dreaded soggy meat-bottom. Place immediately in the preheated oven.
10. Roast steaks in the oven until they reach 5 degrees shy of your target temperature. 130F for medium-rare.
11. Remove steaks from the oven and let them rest for 5-10min before slicing.
12. While the steaks are roasting and resting, make the pan sauce…

Red Wine Pan Sauce

4T butter (cold from the fridge, cut into 4 1T pieces)

1 shallot, minced

1/2c dry red wine

3/4c beef stock

1/2t Kosher salt

2t fresh ground black pepper

1t minced fresh thyme

1. After searing the steaks, turn the heat down and add 1T of the butter.
2. When the butter foams, add the shallot. Cook until translucent, about 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the wine, gently scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
4. When the wine has reduced by about half, add the beef stock. Cook until the mixture has thickened and reduced down to about a third.
5. Whisk in the rest of the butter, 1T at a time.
6. Turn the heat off and stir in the salt, pepper and thyme.

Finally, to round out the meal, I recommend a salad. Salad has become increasingly optional in my world. I live in a house where no one, but me, ever cares to eat it. I stand by my love of salad though… especially if it happens to be a good old steakhouse wedge. Is there anything more satisfying than the cool crunch of iceberg lettuce under a blanket of creamy buttermilk bleu? If you know what’s in a wedge salad, you don’t really need a recipe. However, great takes are available. One of my favorites is the Italian-American Wedge from one of my top-tier cookbooks, Don Angie’s Italian American. This version contains delightful pepperoni crumbles that take the textural contrast over the top. Highly recommend!

So, there you have it folks. Your tip-to-tail Valentine’s Day sorted! I hope to see you all at Fruit Wine Co. next Thursday. Wishing you all the love, in all the ways, this Valentine’s Day.