Steak with Sweet Potato Puree

Hello, this is Deanna! Who the heck is Deanna, you ask?! To answer your question, I am a friend of Chef Megan. We both work to expand our knowledge of drugs at URI College of Pharmacy when we're not busy making delicious food.

Lately, I've been very busy with rotations and haven't had time to contribute to this fine blog. But then I thought to myself, "Self, no more excuses!" So alas, I am here to share a recipe with you.

Much like the Elias family, I enjoy a carnivorous diet. I also enjoy foods that look fancy on a plate. This is how my steak with sweet potato puree recipe was born.

Ingredients (serves two hungry people):

Two nice hunks of steak (choose your favorite cut!)
Olive Oil (enough to cover your steaks without them becoming drenched and drippy)

1 large Sweet Potato

1 cup Milk
1 cup Heavy Cream

1 pat butter (about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon)
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

1. Start off by peeling the sweet potato and cutting up into 1-inch chunks.

2. Throw the chunks in a sauce pan, and cover the pieces with equal parts of milk and heavy cream (or half and half, if that's what you happen to have in the fridge). The amount of milk and cream you need is very dependent on the size of your chosen potato, so just use enough to ensure that all of your sweet potato chunks are submerged. Add about 5 grinds of salt and 5 grinds of pepper.

3. Simmer potato mixture until the potatoes are soft (lid on for 1st half, lid off for second half). Once soft, throw the whole mixture in the blender! Blend until nice and smooth. If it is still too thick to blend at this point, feel free to add some extra milk or cream. The end mixture should be thinner than mashed potatoes, but not so thin that it's runny and weird.

4. Pour the puree back into the sauce pan. At this point, you can add the pat of butter and season to taste with more salt and pepper. Set on the back burner until your steak is ready.

5. Trim the fat off the edges of your steak. Unless you're a person who enjoys eating the fatty bits, get rid of them, they'll just slow you down when it's time to devour your meal.

6. Rub steaks with olive oil, and then season with salt and pepper. I use a very generous helping of both salt and pepper.

7. Preheat your cast iron pan (or whatever device you would like to use to cook these lovely steaks on...I just love cast iron pans and grills...but my grill was stolen on Labor Day weekend, so I had to go with the pan). Make sure the pan is nice and hot before you throw on the steaks.

8. Cook steaks to your desired level of done-ness. Then remove them from the pan and let them rest for a few minutes.

9. While your steaks are resting, reheat your sweet potato puree to make sure that it is nice hot for plating.

10. You are now ready to assemble your plate, puree on the bottom, steak on top! Enjoy! If you'd like a meal that is a little more balanced, serve this with a lovely salad. I went with Romaine lettuce and blue cheese dressing (with those lovely little dried cranberries on top).