Thursday, April 28, 2011

Fire Extinguisher: Ready. Still Waiting.

 I decided to join the online cooking group "French Fridays With Dorie", in which 2000 people cook the same meal from Around My French Table each week and then post about it on their blogs. It's kind of fun to see that everybody's finished product looks totally different, even though they're all following the same instructions. This is my first week joining the group, and the selected recipe--Bistrot Paul Bert Pepper Steak (pg 238)--is not one that I would have chosen on my own, for two reasons:

1) My husband cooks steak beautifully. I burn it. There's nothing worse than destroying an expensive piece of beef, so I usually cede control to Matt.
2) This recipe involves setting brandy on fire. I am accident prone. (Did I mention that I sliced my thumb open on my mixer blade making yesterday's crackers?) Of the 2000 participants, I'd be the one voted most likely to burn her house down. Still, I figured that if all those other people were willing to risk possessions, pets, and families in pursuit of Dorie devotion, then so was I.

I cooked the filets and tented them in foil. I left the pan to cool for a minute, per the instructions, then poured in the brandy that I had on hand, which was, admittedly, super-cheap. I summoned my courage, lit a match, and...nothing. I spent the next five minutes trying to ignite the sucker. Every now and then a section would ripple under a soft, quickly-extinguished flame. Part of me must have been hoping for a fireball, because I felt really disappointed. It was so anticlimactic. I didn't realize it as it was happening, but I think all the alcohol must have burned out when it hit the hot pan (or, my brandy was so cheap that it had no alcohol. It's possible. Later, Matt tried to set it a slug of it on fire in a cold pan, and it took some work to light.) Anyway, by default, I wound up using the instructions for boiling the brandy.
I don't know why, but I absolutely could not get a decent photo of this.
 The sauce (reduced brandy + heavy cream) was good, but I'm more pleased with the fact that I finally, finally cooked a good steak. Not a great steak, but a good steak. Besides the fact that my pyrotechnic failures caused the meat to sit under the tent for waaaay too long, my filet was thinner than Matt's, so it was more well done than I would have liked. His was cooked perfectly, though. We'd been a bit snippy with each other before dinner. Matt took one bite, smiled, and said "All is forgiven."

Conclusion: Love, for Matt's reaction, for the fact that it would be really hard not to love filet mignon, and for the fact that it was so easy. Ever-so-slightly-overcooking the meat was my fault, not Dorie's. I would try to use better brandy and flame it right next time, and see if that imparts more flavor to the sauce. Really, though, when you weigh the Easy Factor against the outcome, this dish blows it off the charts. There's hardly any prep. If the brandy had flamed as expected, this steak and its sauce would have taken a whopping 7 minutes to cook.

18 comments:

  1. Welcome to FFwD! Such a cute post... glad you guys enjoyed this one! :)

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  2. Welcome to FFWD! I used the same brand of cheap brandy but wasn't brave enough to even try lighting it.

    So happy that you were pleased with the results!

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  3. Welcome to FFwD and good for you for even attempting to set the sauce on fire! I was too scared! Your steak looks delicious!

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  4. I'm a flamer from way back. :) The problem may have been from leaving the pan to cool too long. I barely let it cool as it is the pan heat that warms the alcohol so it can ignite its fumes. Another thing that sometimes happens is there is a lot of moisture in the steak that comes out into the pan... I hope you give it another try sometime. The 'fireball' is a lot of fun. Welcome to the group!

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  5. All's well that ends well. Your post was a great deal of fun to read. This is my first visit to your site, so I spent some time exploring and browsing through your earlier entries. I'm so glad I did that. You've created a lovely spot for your readers to visit and I definitely plan to come back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  6. Good tip, Sis. Boom. I didn't realize that the fumes ignite, instead of the liquid. I'll definitely give it another shot in the near future.

    Thanks for the welcome, everyone! This is fun! :-)

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  7. Thanks so much, Mary! I'm pretty new to this whole blog thing, so I'm glad you like the site.

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  8. Welcome to FFwD! I'm not so sure a different brandy would have help - the problem many had is that it just evaporated too fast. I was bummed I used very expensive French Armagnac and then couldn't taste anything but cream ;-) Nicely done, and looking forward to cooking with you.

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  9. Congratulations on your pepper steak and welcome to FFwD;-) I cooked my steak outside on a burner and when I added the cognac and tipped the pan a huge flame came out, wow, that was exciting;-)
    I agree with you that steak is not easy to photograph, my hubs kept asking for his dinner, imagine that!

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  10. Welcome to FFwD - and your own Dorie experiment for two months. Your posts were just the right blend of realistic frustration with enough hilarity. I will keep watching you keep score of the loves, likes, ehs, and icks.

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  11. Thanks, Adriana! Nice to "meet" you!

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  12. It's good to have you join us in FFWD, humor is always good when interpreting recipes and seeing that yours turned out similar to or unlike others cooking the same dish. Endearingly sweet, for Matt's verdict and ticklingly funny, for your attempts at flambeing!

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  13. Welcome to the group...always appreciate more ideas. And I enjoyed a couple of laughs and that is worth lots...your post is great. Nice steak and I am so glad nothing burned down.

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  14. Welcome to the Doristas! And congrats on cooking a steak. I used Courvoisier cognac and I still couldn't get it to light on fire. I was disappointed. My husband was holding the camera and said, "Shouldn't I be holding the fire extinguisher?" Turns out neither the camera nor the extinguisher were needed.

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  15. A great week to start - welcome ! Congrats on tackling the steak dilemna- I had similar past experiences with it and was as happy to get confidence this week as get a fabulous recipe. Nana took a "bye" this week after all the Easter cooking she did, but she did share a family recipe on our blog. Another great French Friday !

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  16. Welcome aboard! Glad you gave it a shot & hope you enjoy cooking along with us for your two-month trial period & well beyond.

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  17. Welcome to FFWD!! I evaporated my first 1/4 cup of brandy because I didn't let the pan cool long enough! Then I tried again and woosh…big flame!! My brandy is a cheaper brand I buy just for cooking…It works great! Glad you enjoyed your first meal with Dorie!

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  18. Welcome to the group! I'm glad it worked out so well in the end. I didn't even try to flame the cognac for this recipe, so kudos for giving it a try.

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