Steak au Poivre w/cognac sauce

Grabbed a beef loin from restaurant depot yesterday and cut it up into 2" thick steaks. Put a home made coffe/pepper rub on them ... smoked with mesquite at 220 deg for about 15 minutes. This got them to 95 degrees, pulled and let rest while I heated up a cast iron skillet for final searing. Then made a cognac/cream sauce to put over the top

While all this happened in the small, in the large we were roasting fingerling potatoes with a very large handful of bay leaves piled on top. Saw it on the food network one day and couldn't resist seeing how they came out. It was unique and good, certainly worth trying!


Smoking to get some mesquite flavor into the meat.


Pan sear to get a good texture on the outside and finish the cook to medium rare.


Flambe the cognac sauce


Potatoes with what seemed like a ton of bay leaves.


After roasting until fork tender, we tossed the potatoes in some rendered fat left over from trimming the beef loin. Made for nice crispy potato skin.


Plated