Ivan's Legendary Steaks

December is often the month of merry feasting. One of the best dinner parties I had was at Ivan's, who kindly invited fellow food bloggers Brad, Cheryl, Leroy and Yixiao for a steak feast. We were in for a treat! Cos if anyone knows his steak, it's Ivan!



Here you go... 21-day dry-aged ribeye beauties, each weighing in at 800 grams!



We proceeded first with a delightful tomato salad. Normally, I'm not a fan of tomatoes but I couldn't get enough of these sweet, firm and juicy Momotaro. The Dijon vinaigrette made it all come together beautifully.



This was followed by braised oxtail stew in red wine jus. Delicious! The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender. Ivan felt he didn't put enough red wine into this, but I was feeling the wine effect more from the soup than from my glass! We mopped up the soup with lots of baguette.



Baby potatoes in herbed butter. We wolfed this down as well, and almost forgot to keep a portion for Yixiao, who was stuck at work on the other end of the island (she missed the dinner eventually, a pity).



And on to the main event, the steaks. If you have good meat, salt and pepper is all you need for seasoning, just before it goes into the pan.



Sizzling in a good dollop of browned butter...can you smell it?



Almost ready...



Ivan is famous for his thumb shots (to show relative size). And that ain't a small thumb!



Mmmh mmmhh! Would you just look at that!



Beautifully rare inside. Pure beefy flavour. Amazingly clean-tasting. I loved the charred bits too.



We were so excited to eat, we forgot the balsamic vinegar reduction. That just means round two! Hahaha. Yes, well, the second slab tasted even better!



And for dessert, Cheryl baked a gorgeous apple pie! We really enjoyed this. The crust was buttery perfection, and the fillings just the right balance of sweet and tart.



We had it with various ice creams - vanilla, rum & raisin, stem ginger...



It was a fun, laid-back evening. Ivan regaled us with travel stories, especially of Hungary where ironcially people never get hungry (food portions are apparently HUGE there). We chatted til late and even got a tour of the house! A couple of wines, including this rare, exotic dessert wine made us all very happy people.

Thanks, Ivan, for a memorable dinner!