By Tom Cleary
Food Columnist, ’11

As we continue this column that I like to think of as an excuse for me to make good food, I’ve finally broken away from the norm of chicken and rice to finally bring you some red meat and potatoes.  This week’s recipe is steak in a black pepper sauce, which can be served with almost any side dish, but goes best with potatoes. It is very important that you do not overcook the steak (aka anything over medium doneness) otherwise you will end up with a tough and dry hockey puck.  Some of you may be afraid of getting sick from undercooked steak, but that is nearly im

possi

ble these days due to FDA regulations, the only reason there is a need to cook the meat at all is to make it easier to bite and chew.  In many places you can order a steak tartar, which is really just ground up raw steak, and no one has gotten sick from eating it.  But just to be on the safe side make sure your meat is fresh and is no more than 2 days old.
Ingredients
The steak (any cut will do as long as it is about ¾ of an inch thick and roughly 8 oz)
Lots and lots of pepper (a pepper mill works best), salt
Some very coarsely ground pepper and a few whole pepper balls (about 3 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons of butter
¾ cup of heavy cream
3/4 cup beef stock or dark beer (both optional)
1/3 cup of cognac or whiskey
Some more pepper

-First step is to season the steaks with some salt and lots of pepper, just completely cover the steak in it.

-Then heat up the butter on medium high heat until it is completely melted.
-Now you can cook the steak, for a medium rare steak cook each side on the medium high heat for 2 min each side, for a medium steak cook each side 3 min. Once the steak is cooked remove it to a cooking sheet and place it in the oven to stay warm.

-After removing the steak it is time to make the sauce.  If you are using the beef stock/beer put that in the pan now and let the liquid reduce until about half of it has been boiled away.  After that add the whiskey and reduce.
-Finally add the heavy cream and the coarsely crushed pepper and pepper balls and reduce the final mixture until you end up with a creamy tan sauce.  It is important to continuously stir the mixture to make sure you get everything off the bottom of the pan. This all should take about 7 or 8 minutes
-After the sauce has thickened just plate the steak and pour sauce over it.

By Tom Cleary
Food Columnist, ‘11

Welcome back everyone to a new year of Cooking with Tom!  As a welcome back recipe, I’ve got a roast chicken potato dish with a red wine sauce.  This may sound like a fancy thing that is difficult to make, but it is actually very simple.  All it takes is one deep pan and about two hours for prep and cooking time.  Don’t let the two hours scare you either, most of that is just sitting back, relaxing and letting the smells of your cooking skills caress your nostrils.

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
5 medium sized potatoes
2  onions
1 bunch of garlic
Salt, pepper and other herbs and spices.
½ cup of red wine

The Chicken
- Preheat oven to 350 degree.
- Peel and cut the potatoes lengthwise about ½ inch thick and lay them on the bottom of a deep pan.
- Then chop up one of the onions into large pieces and mix them with the potatoes.
- Season the potatoes and onions liberally with whatever suits your tastes.
- Next clean the chicken and season the inside cavity and then add in the other onion (having been cut in half) and with the peeled garlic into the chicken too.
- Place the stuffed chicken on top of the potato layer and wrap the bird loosely with tin foil and put it in the oven.
-After an hour, remove the tinfoil and let the dish cook for another half hour to get the skin golden and crispy.

For the Sauce
- Put the chicken and potatoes on two different plates and let the chicken rest for 10 min.  After resting grain all the extra juices back into the pan and add the half cup of red wine
-Now put the pan over a hot burner and reduce the sauce until it turns to a gravy color, while making sure to scrap up all of the bits stuck to the bottom of the dish.  Not only does this give you a good sauce, but it makes it easier to clean the pan afterwards.

Fried Pork Chops with Grilled Vegetables, for Two!

By Tom Cleary
Food Columnist, ‘11 Continue Reading

Continue Reading