Fancy Food Fridays

I love to challenge myself and make difficult yet delicious meals. So I decided to make a marinaded filet mignon atop parmesan risotto. I had never made risotto before but it is always so delicious in restaurants so I wanted to see if I could make some delicious risotto (spoiler alert - I CAN!).

So to start off I marinaded the steaks. I find most of my recipes on Pinterest and this one was called the Best Steak Marinade so I decided to give it a try

Here is the recipe for the marinade (posted via indulgy.com):

1/3 of low sodium soy sauce
1/3 of olive oil
1/3 of lemon juice
1/4 Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons of garlic powder
3 tablespoons of fresh basil
1 tablespoon of dried parsley
1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1 tablespoon of minced garlic

I let the steaks marinade for about three hours before the grill master (my boyfriend) threw them on the grill. We put the grill on high and cooked the steaks for about 4 minutes a side.

While the steaks are cooking we made the risotto. 

Here is the recipe (posted via foodnetwork.com):

1 1/2 cups of Arborio rice (this is rice especially for risotto).

1 cup of white wine (we chose Pinot Grigio but you can pick any dry white wine).

3 to 4 cups of low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

1/2 cup of parmesan (more to sprinkle on top)

4 tablespoons of butter 

salt and pepper to taste

To make risotto it takes about 40 minutes. So to start out you sweat the onions and garlic for about 5 minutes with two tablespoons of butter with the pan on medium heat. While this is happening, put the chicken stock in a separate pan over medium heat so it can warm up. After the onions become somewhat transparent you add the rice for only two minutes - just so the butter can cover the rice. Then add the cup of white wine - once that has been absorbed you can begin to slowly add a ladle full of chicken broth at a time. Only add more chicken broth once the rice has absorbed all of the chicken broth. This process will continue for the next 20 minutes until the rice is cooked. At the last minute you add the parmesan and remaining two tablespoons of butter to the risotto. 

After letting the steaks rest for about 5 minutes, we sliced them and put them on top of the risotto and sprinkled extra parmesan. The result was a beautiful dish. And thankfully it tasted amazing as well.

The steak was delicious. The marinade really brought the steak to life - i hate to say this but the lemon really brightened up the dish (thankfully it didn't taste like lemon though). The steak was tender and juicy. The risotto was creamy and delicious. It had this rice-oatmealy quality that was awesome.

Tonight, I felt like a real chef cooking items like risotto but it really was not that hard and it was definitely worth all the time it took to create it.