Cristi Cooks the Book: Porterhouse Steaks (Actually Filets) with Grilled Asparagus with Prosciutto, Fried Bread, Poached Egg, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar

It is March 1st and my last dish cooked from the book was on Valentine's Day. I have been bad and I know it! No excuses here, just a review of how it turned out and a few pictures to share. All I will say is that I promise to be better after tax day. I'm actually really looking forward to getting back in the kitchen and trying out some of my new toys from Christmas like the meat grinder and ice cream maker. The spring also brings more produce and seafood options so we all have that to look forward to.

For Valentine's day, I opted to cook the Porterhouse Steak recipe with Herb & Shallot Butter. Now a Porterhouse is a big steak, so I trimmed the portion size down to a filet. I can't imagine it would have been any better had I used the porterhouse. I started by making a special herb & shallot butter out of sauteed shallots, chopped parsley, paprika, salt, and of course butter. The butter went back into the fridge and I started work on the asparagus dish.

You may remember the torn bread crouton recipe from previous posts, it is exactly the same. Cook garlic in hot oil and then tear bread and brown in the oil. The next step was to poach the eggs and light the grill....yes, everyone - I lit the grill. Although I'm not sure that I did the little "tee-pee" approach that Matt employs from Boy Scout days correctly...it seemed to take a really long time to get the temperature up. In the meantime, look how great these filets look...a little salt, pepper, and oil and they were ready to go on the grill,.

The poached eggs turned out great. Sometimes it can be a little hard to poach the perfect egg, but first time was a success.

The filets went on the grill and were brushed with the herb butter. While the filets "rested", we grilled the asparagus on the grill as well.

The finished filets were topped with another dollop of the herb butter and the asparagus was combined with prosciutto, the poached egg, and the croutons. The asparagus dish was drizzled with balsamic vinegar (one of my favorites).

I think this was our favorite meal yet. It was so nice to avoid the crowds and cook a quick & easy "gourmet" grilled meal at home on what was a busy work Monday. The poached egg literally "melted" over the plate with the asparagus and the steak. The balsamic vinegar combined with the egg yolk really just put the dish over the top. The butter melted down into the filet and made it really juicy and flavorful. These two were both "keepers!"