Au Poivre Goes Light

Our favorite bistro dish is steak au poivre so, with rain predicted for Saturday night, we decided to skip a wet outing and make it ourselves. We planned all week and made sure we had all the ingredients. Good fillets from our favorite butcher...got 'em. French fried potatoes... well... let's skip the fried part and roast new potatoes in the oven with olive oil, salt and a little rosemary. We just picked up a great looking bunch of asparagus so we'll throw that on the grill with the fillets. Now for the peppercorn sauce...OK...let's look up a recipe...oil, butter, heavy cream...how much butter and cream??? Hmm. No wonder we like this stuff so much.

Well, the fillets were expensive enough without adding in the cost of a visit to a cardiologist so we set off to make a lighter version that would still have that creamy taste we love so much. Usually the "lightening up" process requires experimentation but we hit the nail on the head on our first try and Saturday night's dinner was oh, so good. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 Filets, approximately 4 oz. each
2 Tablespoons course ground black pepper *
1 Shallot, diced
1 Large clove garlic, diced
1 Cup veal stock, homemade or store bought
2 Tablespoons fat-free half & half
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Teaspoon mustard
Salt to taste

Directions:
Place the peppercorns in a dish and press both sides of the fillets into them to coat. Pour the olive oil into a cast iron pan and heat until smoking. Salt the fillets and add to the pan, lowering the heat to medium. Cook until they're done to your liking. Remove the fillets from the pan and cover them with aluminum foil to keep warm.

Add the shallot and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes on medium. Add the veal stock and cook on high until the sauce is reduced in half. Swirl in the mustard and the half & half. Return the fillets to the pan to heat through and serve. Makes 2 servings.

* We only had whole peppercorns and no grinder but we found the easiest way to crush them is to place them inside a plastic baggie and run a rolling pin across them several times.