By Laina Carter of McGrail Vineyards

We are officially more than a month into fall, which means things are starting to cool down a bit. One thing I love about the cooler weather is that people are more inclined to eat warm, hearty meals. This one definitely falls into that category!

At first, the idea of a blue cheese butter sauce seemed daunting to me, but it was actually so easy to make and the result is luxuriously rich and creamy. The velvety tannins in the big, bold James Vincent Cabernet are tamed by both the cheese and the steak. The wine and the steak dish are perfectly complementary to one another. I could easily imagine this pairing as a Christmas dinner staple. I hope you’ll try this one out! It’s so worth it.

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Rosemary Blue Cheese Sauce & New York Steak

Makes about 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS:

For the blue cheese rosemary butter sauce:

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 shallots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 4 oz. blue cheese crumbles (about 1 cup)
• leaves from one fresh 8″ sprig of rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste

For the toppings:

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 4 shallots, peeled, thinly sliced
• 4 oz. sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dry red wine

For the steak:

• 2 lbs. New York steak (4 1/2 lb. pieces of steak)
• garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

For the blue cheese rosemary butter sauce:

1. In a large pan, heat the butter on medium-low. Allow butter to brown just a bit. Add shallots and cook until soft.
2. Stir in milk and allow it to cook down to about half, stirring occasionally.
3. Add cream of mushroom soup, blue cheese crumbles, and fresh rosemary leaves. Stir well.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside or cover to keep warm while preparing toppings and steak.

For the toppings:

1. In a small pan, heat butter on medium. Add shallots and cook until soft. Stir in mushrooms and cook until soft.
2. Add red wine and allow to simmer until most wine has evaporated. There will still be some liquid in the pan from the butter; this is fine. Set aside.

For the steak:

1. Remove steak from refrigerator and allow to reach room temperature.
2. Preheat grill on medium.
3. Liberally season steak with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
4. Grill steak for three minutes on each side, then another three minutes on each side (a total of 12 minutes per steak and 6 minutes per each side of steak). This is how I grill a steak that has a medium thickness to achieve a medium-rare doneness. Steaks can be cooked for a longer or shorter amount of time to achieve desired doneness.
5. Place steaks on a plate and cover with foil. Steak will continue to cook while resting.

To put it all together:

1. Plate each steak. Spoon toppings and liquid in toppings pan onto each steak. Spoon blue cheese rosemary butter sauce over steak.
2. Serve with a side of steamed green beans and/or boiled red potatoes and a bottle of our rich, velvety James Vincent Cabernet.

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Please let us know if you end up making these pairings and if you have any feedback! We’d love to hear it.

Cheers and enjoy!