Steak with Roquefort Sauce

4 Tbsp olive oil
half an onion, chopped

• salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 ounces Roquefort cheese, crumbled
• Italian flat leaf parsley, for garnish

2 1 lb or so steaks

Preparation time, 20 minutes
Cooking time, 20 minutes or so maybe a bit less

I love cheese. Most cheeses, anyways. Maybe not cottage cheese. And, as determined earlier I also love beef. So, when Ruth and I went to Feenie's for dinner a couple weeks back, I ordered the marinated sirloin with Roquefort Cheese and a bordelaise sauce. As the kids say these days, OMG it was teh yum! But that's a whole other post (which I'll make soon) about our experience at Feenies. Anyways, so I went to my favorite specialty cheese shop at Park Royal and looked around a bit, and settled on a nice Montagnolo Roquefort.

I wrestled a bit with how to use the cheese, and ended up doing nothing for a while. In comes Ruth to the rescue! My girlfriend is the awesomest. Anyways, I had purchased a couple of Buffalo striploins from 3P meats in North Vancouver. I don't know if I'll purchase there again tho; it was expensive, not the friendliest, and frankly just wasn't the best meat. I've had buffalo before, and I generally quite like it. If you didn't know, buffalo is like beef only better with less fat and less preservatives. If you can imagine the best organic beef you've had and then take some of the fat away, that's buffalo. Anyways, the pieces we got weren't perfect, and at 20 bux a kilo I expect it to be awesome, near perfect with no chewy bits or fatty pieces. Especially as in Alberta buffalo is basically as cheap as or cheaper than beef. I'm sure I'll give that place another chance at some point, but I gotta say my first experience there hasn't made me a fan. The Blue Goose beef place or Sebastian's...now that's a different story. For a different blog post.

Anyways, I digress. So I had these two strips and the roquefort and a talented girlfriend. So she made a roquefort sauce. I totally loved it! She started with some olive oil in a large saucepan. She chopped up about a half an onion and sweated that for a bit. The key to sweating onions properly is to not over heat the oil, although that can be difficult on a cheap electric stove like is in my apartment. Anyways, she cooks the onions for a bit and sears the steaks on both sides (five minutes a side or so). After removing the steaks and putting them somewhere to keep them warm, she then adds some brandy, a few tablespoons I think, to loosen any browned bits on the bottom of the pan, as well as to add flavour. Once that reduces a bit she adds 1 cup of heavy cream (whipping cream, it turns out, is heavy cream. Who knew?), and brings it to a boil. During this, it should be stirred until it starts to thicken. A bit of fresh pepper and a bit of parsley, add the cheese, and fold that in until it melts, and voila! a nice sauce to go on the steaks you have warmed over on the side.

We had the steaks with some mashed potatoes and a bit of vegetable, and I found the sauce was perfect. Just a bit of the blue cheese tang, and a subtle brandy flavour, and it all really brought out the flavour of the steaks. All in all it took about 40 minutes to cook, and I personally think this one's a keeper. I know I will try it again sometime. This is one of my new faves for sure!