Pan-fried Sirloin Steak with Simple Chianti Butter Sauce and Olive Oil Mash | Buttered Peas with Crunchy Bacon*

I've never cooked steak before - always leaving the grilling to Tay while I provided the side dishes, mostly because I found the varying degrees of 'doneness' to be intimidating and I always worried that I would undercook the beef or worse, over cook it.

This dish, which included pan-fried steak with a red wine sauce and mashed potatoes with olive oil, parmesan and butter was surprisingly easy. Served on the side were buttered peas, made with bacon and a loaf of warm french bread.

I didn't have any Chianti on hand so instead used a Sangiovese, which, from what I can tell, worked well. The sauce was a little too salty but with lots of flavor. I think a part of the problem with the salt is that I'm not using coarse sea salt rather than regular table salt, which I think I tend to use more sparingly as it comes out of the shaker.

I used fresh peas for the side dish, but since its not their season, they were quite small. Next time, I expect that I will use frozen peas, an option listed in the book.

The steaks were cooked very nicely - I was aiming at medium steak - Tay's steak, which was a bit thicker ended up being medium-rare while mine was medium.



*From Cook With Jamie, Pages 158 & 320, respectively