steak with wine sauce

serves 2

12-20 oz shell steak, cut in two
1-2 glasses spanish red wine
1/2 pound crimini (brown) mushrooms
2 shallots
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
herbes provence
crushed black pepper
kosher salt
butter
3/4 cup vegetable or beef stock

pierce your steaks with a fork all over. rub salt and pepper into the steak on all sides. place in a glass casserole dish or bread pan. it's important to use glass because wine will react with metal or plastic.
add soy sauce and olive oil to the steaks. add enough wine to mostly cover the steaks (if they aren't submerged you can flip them later).
slice one shallot and add it to the marinade. slice two or three large mushrooms and add them as well. add a small handful of herbes provence.
cover the dish with tin foil and let it marinate in the fridge overnight.
before cooking the steaks, mince the remaining shallot and wash and slice the rest of the mushrooms. remove steaks from marinade and dry them off a little bit with a paper towel.
heat a well-seasoned cast iron or nonstick pan on your stovetop, get it really hot. melt a pat of butter (or olive oil depending on your preference) and add the steaks right away.
make sure they are brown all the way through and at least warmed in the middle. for the steaks i get, this is about 4 minutes per side, and i only flip them once. if you doubt the steak is cooked, just cut it open and look.
when steaks are done, set them aside and keep them warm.
let the pan cool down a little bit. add another big pat of butter to the pan. add shallots and mushrooms, fry over medium heat for a minute or two. then add 1/2 cup or more of remaining marinade and bring to a boil.
add stock and continue to boil until syrupy and thick, about 3-5 minutes.
spoon your sauce over the steaks and serve.

dear vegetarians,
normally, this is the space where i would crack wise and make fun of you. but if you read this far and weren't completely disgusted by the thought of steaks, i have a treat for you. this recipe works just as well for tofu! you just need to make sure to press as much water out of the tofu as possible before marinating it, and you will probably want to marinate it for longer than overnight (24 to 48 hours). i've had great success cutting a couple of pounds of tofu into cutlets and using this marinade to make cutlets that taste great on the grill and are also delicious in sandwiches. my dirty little secret is that i was once a vegetarian myself!