Why not celebrate the Mom in your life by throwing a casual dinner party and impressing her with your cooking skills? This Sirloin Strip with Red Wine, Rosemary and Blue Cheese is an indulgent yet super simple recipe that brings the restaurant ‘wow’ factor to your backyard.
This post contains sponsored content. I was fortunate enough to receive monetary compensation and/or products from Dairy Farmers of Canada. Although compensated for my efforts, all opinions are my own.
I don’t know about the Moms in your life, but the Moms that I know are more of the kind of gals who would rather enjoy a large glass of red, some quality cheese and fire-up the BBQ with her family then indulge in bottomless mimosas and Eggs Benedict at the local brunch hot spot. Honestly, both scenarios sound great to me, but at Peppers & Pennies we are always looking for ways to cut costs in the kitchen and going-out for Mother’s Day Brunch can be a huge burden on the wallet. Make your money go further! Treat Mom to the experience of a gourmet meal at home featuring a bold, award winning Canadian Cheese rather than a gift she may or may not use a year from now. Trust me, she’ll always remember this!
Before we get into the recipe, let’s talk cheese. As announced last month, I have partnered up with Dairy Farmers of Canada to bring you monthly recipes featuring different types of Canadian cheese from various cheese shops coast-to-coast. My goal with this partnership is to truly showcase the fine craftsmanship of Canadian Cheese and the talent our local cheese-makers possess. This month, I had the pleasure of unwrapping a distinctly unique blue cheese called Dragon’s Breath from That Dutchman’s Cheese Farm in Nova Scotia.
Isn’t she a beauty?
Dragon’s Breath is not only an award winning cheese, but it is straight-up delicious to even the casual cheese aficionado. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous unwrapping this cheese as I haven’t had many Blue Cheeses that I truly enjoyed. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the Dragon’s Breath as the flavour of this little guy is smooth and bold, but not overpoweringly so. The cheese had a hint of spice a la horseradish in its end notes, which is why I paired it with steak! Aside from its jet-black wax covering, this cheese is special as it doesn’t boast the typical blue veins many blue cheeses do. It is creamy and nearly pure white! What a unique treat!
Since Dragon’s Breath is so creamy and unique I didn’t want to take away from the cheese’s texture and melt in into a dish. When working with high quality and lovingly created Canadian Cheese, I want to ensure I keep the integrity of the cheese as much as possible. Crumbling the creamy Dragon’s Breath over a lightly seasoned and BBQ’d sirloin strip with red wine reduction and rosemary ties the flavours together in a nearly effortless way.
This dish is so much fun to make! Always one to BBQ, I prepared my sirloin strip in a grilling cast iron pan and then created the sauce while the steaks rested. There is something about cooking over an open flame that is so energizing. This also creates less clean-up as you’ll want to spend as much time with your Mother’s Day dinner party as possible once all the wine has been drank and steaks consumed.
Budget Tip: Can’t justify buying steaks for all? Invite the family over for a mid-day visit on the patio with wine and snacks! Prepare one sirloin strip as per below and reduce the red wine reduction ingredients by half. Thinly slice the sirloin strip and arrange on 4-6 small appetizer plates with the Dragon’s Breath and roasted rosemary placed on top of one teaspoon of red wine reduction. This creates a little snacking plate that is sure to make a bold statement!
Sirloin Strip with Red Wine, Rosemary and Blue Cheese
Ingredients
- 4 Sirloin Strips, brought to room temperature
- 4 tablespoons coarsely ground Himalayan pink salt
- 4 small sprigs rosemary
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Half a block of Dragon’s Breath, crumbled
- ½ cup of your favourite red wine (I used a Malbec!)
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon white sugar
Instructions
- Fire-up your BBQ and heat large cast iron pan over high or until ¼ teaspoon of butter sizzles. While waiting for the grill, pat sirloin dry and season with coarse Himalayan Pink Salt.
- Add remaining butter to cast iron and melt. Add sirloin strips and close grill lid. Grill for roughly 4 minutes per side (for medium rare).
- Remove cooked steaks from pan and tent with tin foil to let steaks rest. Reduce heat on grill to medium, add rosemary and crisp for one minute. Remove rosemary.
- Carefully add wine, Worcestershire sauce and sugar to pan to deglaze. Scrape brown bits loose from pan and cook until wine mixture is reduced to half, roughly 4 minutes. Turn off BBQ.
- Place steaks on plate, spoon 1 tablespoon of red wine reduction over each steak, crumble ¼ of Dragon’s Breath and top with the butter roasted rosemary. Enjoy!
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