NuM NuM

Mmmm...look at that melting cheese. Lobster played chef tonight and cooked us a delicious gourmet meal. He made filet mignon with a balsamic syrup reduction. If you've never reduced balsamic vinegar like this, I highly recommend it. Once reduced, the vinegar becomes rich and sweet and you can pour it over anything...ANY-THING!! It's especially good over vanilla ice cream and strawberries.

But for tonight's meal, lobster paired it with steak. The combinatiom of sweet and savory was sublime - not to mention sweet and salty is my favorite combo. The meal took me back to a meal we had on our honeymoon in Florence at this restaurant. If you're ever in Italy, I highly recommend you give it a try. You can order a pasta sampler, meat sampler and even a dessert sampler in which they bring you three to five different dishes for each course - it literally is an endless orgy of eating. If you can't travel to Italy, you're in luck because they have a sister restaurant in San Diego. Alas, try the recipe and see if you're a fan of the sweet and savory too.

Filet Mignon with Balsamic Syrup and Cantal Cheese - 6 servings
Adapted from here

1 1/2 cups balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter
6 (5 to 6-ounce) filet mignon steaks (each about 1-inch thick)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 ounces Cantal cheese, blue cheese, or goat cheese

Directions
Boil the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/3 cup, stirring occasionally, about 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the broiler. Melt the butter in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper. Cook the steaks to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer the steaks to a baking sheet. Crumble the cheese over the steaks and broil just until the cheese melts, about 1 minute. Sprinkle with pepper.

Transfer the steaks to plates. Drizzle the balsamic sauce around the steaks and serve