This time, I didn't stray quite as far from the original recipe as I have with other entries. There's still steak, potato, and something in the onion family. And it's all nicely stacked. That's pretty close considering what I've done with other entries.
For this one, mine are a teeny bit larger than the original amuse bouche size and the shallots became onions in a cream and horseradish sauce. And the beef in question was a beef tenderloin. Left over, actually. Nothing wrong with that, if you ask me.
Oh, and before I forget, the contest is sponsored by Canadian Beef. Moo.
The tenderloin was from the small end - I had bought a whole tenderloin a while back and this was the piece I didn't use at the time. I cooked it yesterday for dinner, so I started with a fully cooked steak - it just needed the chill taken off before serving. That was easy to do. I just heated up a bit of oil in a cast iron pan, let it cook just a little bit on each side and then let it rest before slicing. It didn't cook any more except maybe the extra browning on the outside, but the inside was still nicely pink.
The tenderloin pieces I had were almost exactly the same diameter as the potato slices, so it made a nice stack. If your steak is a different shape or size, you'll have to adjust your slices to fit.
Obviously, I enter contests because I want to win (hey, there's $100 at stake here) but in this case, I'm glad I entered this because I probably wouldn't have brainstormed this combination on a normal day. My husband even commented that he couldn't figure out what I was cooking, but every time he came into the kitchen, something smelled really good. Onions always smell good, but the horseradish added a nice little kick, and the sour cream mellowed it out. And how can you argue with crispy potatoes and a bit of tenderloin.
Yeah, I'm glad I made this. I'm just sorry we ate it all. Sigh. I'll have to find another excuse to cook some of those onions again soon.
Stacked Steak Bites
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, cut in half, halves cut in thirds, then sliced into 1/2 pieces.
1 Idaho potato, boiled in its skin then peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
Beef tenderloin (or other steak) cooked, rested, and sliced
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
3 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper, to taste.
Put the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil into a skillet and heat on medium until the butter melts, add the onion and a pinch of salt and cook until the onions soften. Keep cooking, stirring as needed, until the onions just begin to brown.
Meanwhile heat the remaining olive oil in a heavy skillet (I used cast iron) add the sliced potatoes and cook until browned and a little crisp. Flip, and cook on the other side.
To the onions, add the horseradish and the sour cream, stir to coat well and cook a few seconds more until the sour cream thickens and clings to the onions.
To serve, place a spoon full of the onion mixture on top of a potato slice, then top with the steak.
Cookistry went on hiatus for a while, but I'm back and blogging. Possibly sporadically, but I plan on updating it more than in the previous years. Thanks for reading!
