Filet Mignon with Cabernet Balsamic Sauce

As the budget was tight this year for Valentine's Day, we decided to stay in and that I would make dinner at home. There are SO MANY great deals around the holiday and was pleasantly surprised to see Filet Mignon at a decent price (and lobster, but we'll get into that later). I remembered from the good old days at The Bay that I loved the cab-sauce, so I was eager to find a good recipe and give it a go. See below for a pretty simple recipe that uses mostly household ingredients.

Cabernet Balsamic Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup red onion, minced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, add extra-virgin olive oil and onions and lightly saute until onions are caramelized. Add garlic and cook until garlic begins to turn brown. Deglaze with wine and balsamic vinegar. Add sugar and let simmer and reduce for 20 to 30 minutes until mixture reduces to 3/4 cup. Strain wine mixture and return to heat to reduce for 5 more minutes or until thick syrup is created. Serve with the steaks.

Filet Mignon:

Heat a saute pan on medium-high and coat lightly with nonstick spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Rub both sides of the steaks with salt and pepper to your taste. Sear the steaks for about 2 minutes on each side, and then place in the oven (in an oven safe dish obviously). We left it in the oven for about 8 minutes which made it medium-rare.

We were very pleased with the way that the steaks and sauce came out. The sauce is very flavorful but does not overpower the taste of the good steak, and really blends the two nicely together. We also drank red wine with dinner so it was a delicious combo! I do realize that all my readers are not beef eaters, so I will tell you that I do not recommend this sauce to go on other meats. On fish it would be so gross, and you might be able to pull it off on a pork dish, but it is nothing that I would try. On a buffalo steak or something it would probably be ok, but like I said... probably best just to skip it if you aren't all that into beef.

I did make lobster, but I plan on at some point making a whole lobster and posting that experience on here, so I will save that for another date. Please try it and let me know what you think- I am eager to hear feed back.

Keep on cookin' cuppies!