Vodka marinated steak

From Russia with love.... or how to use vodka at it best... or my debut in making steaks... or smoky kitchen chronicles... or how to fight your demons.... or... so many emotions, but this is the result and at its best!!!

Ingredients:

2 filet Mignion (200 g each, 1.5 inches thick)

1 Tsp. olive oil for frying

100 ml. beef stock

15 g. butter

For marinade:

40 ml. vodka

30 ml. virgin olive oil

1 tsp. dry thyme

1 tsp. crushed black pepper corns

sea salt to taste

2 crushed garlic gloves

Method:

1. Prepare the marinade in plastic zip-bag

2. Place stakes in to the bag, close it and coat the meat evenly in marinade.

3. Marinade at room T for 4 hours.

4. Drain marinade from steak and reserve for making sauce.

5. Heat cast iron pan (i bought mine especially for steak making, hence all the internet research proved that it is the best one for steak). Heat the pan on very high heat until some smoke will appear. Add olive oil, tablespoon or so, just to cover the pan's bottom.

6. Open all windows, switch on AC and fan on highest possible mode.

7. Fry drained from marinade steaks 4 minutes on each side.

8. For better doneness place the pan with the steaks in very hot oven for another minute or so.

To make sure the steak is done, check internal temperature: 60-62 C - medium, 65-70 C medium - well, 70 C and above for well done. Make sure to stop cooking them before they reached desired T, hence after they will rest wrapped in foil their T will rise few more degrees.

9. Remove steaks from pan and cover in aluminum foil to rest for 15 min, so all the juices can redistribute.

10. In meanwhile prepare the sauce. Add beef stock to reserved marinade to reach 150 ml in total. Bring the pan (same one from the meat) to the medium heat (anyway it will still be pretty hot after cooking steak) and pour prepared liquid into the pan, deglaze.

11. When sauce will start sizzling, add butter and mix. Remove from the heat, pour over meat.

I served my First and thank god successful steak with two mashes on the side: carrot (baked with olive oil and oregano, and then mashed) and potato (aded some dill to it).

Now i am not scared from steaks anymore! Most importantly - just keep ventilation running in the kitchen at all time. Will be pretty smoky in there... But it was worth it all!