The Growing Foodie: Date Night Dinner: Mushroom Confit over Boston Beer Steak

Last week in the mail, I received a free 60-day BJ's pass. Um, I love BJs, purely for the free samples (I mean, c'mon, that is pretty awesome). In fact, I remember getting 60-day passes as a kid and standing at the sample stands (okay, I loved food even then). There are also staples that you need to buy. Example, cooking spray. I probably go through one big cooking spray every other week. I don't like using butter or oil. I almost always use cooking spray. ALSO, did you know BJs took coupons? That's right--2 huge PAMs for $8 + my $1 off two coupon. WHOA. That was a good deal. Anyway, while there, we also got a gigantic tub of mushrooms. I didn't know what to make that would be considered "different" and/or "fun".

Well, Thursday came around, I had a lot of time on my hands, and John gets here late due to class. So, I found this recipe. Granted, it's not my own, however, since there were only 2 people who have reviewed it in three years, I still felt adventurous giving it a try.

You can see the recipe in the link above, my recipe is going to be below. I am going to suggest a few different things (first, you should definitely make this in a crockpot with a big roast, rather than steak)! To be honest, it was a rather involved dinner--put in the mushrooms, take out the mushrooms, up the heat, put in steaks, lower heat, let steaks "simmer". They came out good, too, not overdone at all. However, for all this work, my favorite part about these steaks were the ale-butter sauce. Next time, I will grill my steaks with my favorite steak seasoning and make the ale-butter sauce with 1 bottle of beer and 2 tablespoons of butter.

Mushroom Confit over Boston Beer Steak
Serves: 4

5 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion, diced

2 cups (about 6 to 8 ounces) small button mushrooms, cleaned trimmed and sliced

2 pounds top round steak, seasoned with salt and pepper or favorite steak seasoning (I used McCormick's Montreal Steak)

4 (12-ounce) bottles of Samuel Adams Boston Lager

To make the mushroom confit, melt one tablespoon of butter in one tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat in a large saute pan. Add the red onion and saute until it's translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until they give up their juices. Lower heat and cook about another 3-5 minutes, then remove to a bowl. Cover and set aside.

In the same pan, heat the other tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat and sear the steaks about 2 minutes each side. Transfer the steaks to a crockpot and add the ale. Cook on low uncovered until fork tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Remove the steak to a carving board to rest. Increase the heat to allow the ale to reduce by two-thirds. Season with salt and pepper, remove from heat and whisk in butter. Transfer mushroom mixture into the ale-butter sauce and spoon over steaks before serving.

Until the next time my oven is on...

Date Night Dinner: Mushroom Confit over Boston Beer Steak

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