The lure of steak is simply irresistible. Add in beer-soaked mushrooms, caramelized onions, and some fingerling potatoes roasted with blue cheese, and you'll have every neighbor within 300 feet of your front door standing in your kitchen. So lock 'em out, or welcome them in. Either way, this 30-minute meal will knock the socks off your local steak house.
We love to indulge in a great cut of meat and a few rich flavors to go with it. Here we've made some drunken mushrooms and caramelized onions to go with a beautiful piece of steak. And don't forget the potatoes. Oh the potatoes!
While we love a good piece of steak, what makes this dish are these hearty onions and mushrooms. They've been caramelized and sautéed with a dark beer until the pan sauce thickens. It will be all you can do not to eat them before your steak is done.
The ingredients are minimal, the taste is huge, and it can be a meal for just one or a crowd. The whole thing comes together in just under 30 minutes and will be a meal to remember.
20 fingerling potatoes, washed and halved
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
2 red or sweet yellow onions, peeled and sliced
12 to 15 large button mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces dark beer, your favorite or what you have on hand
2 thick steaks
Toss the potatoes with salt and olive oil, and spread on a baking sheet or metal pan. Roast in a 425°F oven for 20 to 30 minutes.
Place onion, a pinch of salt, and a dash of oil in a medium-sized sauté pan over medium-high heat. Caramelize onions (you can see how right here) and remove from pan to a plate. Add mushrooms, garlic, and a few tablespoons of oil. Stir until coated. Keep mushrooms on medium-high heat for 5 minutes and then add half the beer.
Continue to stir mushrooms occasionally until they have sunk below the level of the liquid in the pan. Add onions back to the pan and remaining beer. Continue stirring over medium heat until sauce has reduced and thickened, about 6 to 10 minutes. You want it to form a gravy, but not a paste, so watch it carefully. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a separate heavy-bottomed pan, such as a cast iron skillet, heat two tablespoons oil over high heat. Add steaks and season the exposed sides with salt and pepper. Cook for 4 and a half minutes, then flip. Season again and cook for an additional 4 and a half minutes. Here are instructions for finishing your steak in the oven if you prefer it more done than medium rare, as we have it here. Remove from pan and rest covered with foil on a cutting board.
Check the potatoes. If tops are browned and potatoes are tender, remove and sprinkle blue cheese on top of each one. Place back in oven and turn to broil. Continue cooking for additional 5 minutes. Reheat mushrooms and onions plate them on top of the steak. Remove potatoes from the oven, serve and enjoy!

Related: Flank, Sirloin, or Rib? Steak Cuts Explained
(Images: Sarah Rae)





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Comments (19)
You had me at "12 ounces of dark beer."
This is definitely on my list. I love a good steak!
I'm going to try this, but with Daiya on the potatoes, and served with a mushroom Field Roast instead of steak. Yum!!
I have a gift card to our local butcher and was planning on doing something steak-y for a Valentine's meal for me and my husband. This looks like the winner to me.
YUM.
So, I really want to make this. Just looking at the directions, though, I wonder how the sauce could possibly turn into a "paste" without some kind of thickener, like flour. Is the beer alone provide enough of a thickening agent?
Oh, and I just had breakfast and this makes me hungry for lunch already. Wonderful blog, recipes and pictures! Happy Wednesday! towe.
Emberz - It's because of the beer and the onions (mainly the onions). Because they were broken down and carmalized first, when they are added back into the mushrooms with the beer, as the liquid reduces, it thickens right up. It doesn't get pastey... just thick and stew-y. But if it reduces too much, it would get gloppy (I like technical terms) instead and that's not good eats (well not pretty eats anyway).
I don't like mushrooms or beef, but boy does this look delicious!
I made this last night. The potatoes were amazing, but the mushroom sauce didn't work out. I followed the recipe and the sauce had a much higher onion to mushroom ratio than the picture above. My sauce also didn't thicken - I used the suggested method for carmelizing the onions. Dissapointing because the sauce in the picture looks so tasty. The recipe took me 65 minutes from start to finish. I don't think I'll make it again.
Hm. After reading Merceroo's comment about how the recipe took 65 minutes to make...removing this from my list. I need fast recipes.
wow. This looks incredible. Who needs dinner out for Valentine's Day?
MERCEROO - At 65 minutes, I assume you let the onions do their thing low and slow, so my only advice would have been to let the sauce go longer or it needed to be on higher heat. If do have it happen again 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (mixed first two two tablespoons of cold water) to the mix will thicken it instantly, but it's a well loved sauce in our house without needing that measure.
This is definately a must try...My daughter has requested a steak with blue cheese topping...I think she will enjoy this recipe along with potatoes maybe a new favorite....
This recipe looks delicious! I rarely cook red meat, however, let alone steaks, so how thick is a "thick" steak? One inch? Two inches? (Thanks!)
The steak above was two inches, a less thick steak is just fine, just reduce the time by a minute on each side.
Sarah Rae, would you suggest a marinade for the steak prior to cooking, that would go well w/ mushroom & potatoes?
I don't marinade steaks in general, but you're welcome to do so if it suits your taste!
My husband is cooking up the mushrooms right now, it smells amazing!
It was delicious. We used Innis and Gunn because that's all we had in the house. We will be making this again and again.