Lesson #24: Steak Oskar

Low Carb Cooking 101

Sometimes you just have to take the time to have dinner alone with your spouse. It’s so nice to have a little quiet time together, even if it means fixing a separate dinner for the kids earlier in the evening. It’s worth the effort, even though it’s not something you’d want to do every night.

Steak Oskar isn’t something you’d want to waste on the kids, anyway. This is grown-up food, plain and simple. Mine would certainly eat it without complaint, but they wouldn’t appreciate it, if you know what I mean. (Well, maybe my 17-year-old son would. Steak Oskar is something he’d make to impress his ever-so-lovely girlfriend.)

Steak Oskar is so rich that you really don’t need to serve much else with it. A nice colorful, crispy salad is all you really need. But since this is a “special occasion” meal, I’ve included a recipe for dessert, too. We might as well pull out all the stops, right?

Here’s this evening’s menu:

• Steak Oskar
• Field Of Greens
• No-Bake Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake

Here’s the shopping list for the meal. You may very well already have some of these things on hand:

• 2 6 to 8-ounce beef steaks (Sirloin or rib-eye steaks are good.)
• 1 4-ounce can crabmeat
• frozen asparagus spears
• 4 radishes
• 1 small yellow tomato (You can use a red tomato, of course, but a yellow one is prettier and less acidic.)
• fresh chives or green onions
• 1 16-ounce bag prewashed field greens (There will be some left over.)
• 3 eggs
• butter
• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese (There will be 4 ounces left over.)
• heavy cream
• 3 packets Swiss Miss Diet hot cocoa mix
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• instant coffee
• 1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
• 6 packets artificial sweetener
• lemon juice
• white wine vinegar
• salad dressing of your choice
• Tabasco sauce
• dried tarragon

Here’s the game plan:

Make the No-Bake Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake the night before you are going to serve the meal. While you are making the cheesecake, hard-boil the egg needed for the Field Of Greens Salad. Cover the cheesecake carefully with plastic wrap and place it and the hard-boiled egg in the refrigerator until you are ready to complete the meal.

A little while before you are going to serve the meal, set the table. Don’t forget the candles, and remember to serve the water in goblets. (This is, after all, a special occasion!) Prepare a pitcher of ice water to put on the table to replenish the goblets. (Goblets are awfully pretty, but they don’t hold much!)

Turn on the broiler.

Prepare the salad vegetables and put the salads together. Put them in the refrigerator to chill while you are preparing the Steak Oskar.

Steam the asparagus by making a slit in the box and adding a couple of tablespoons of water, then microwaving them on high for 6 minutes. Drain the liquid off through the slit in the box. Set aside.

Prepare the Steak Oskar according to the recipe directions. If the asparagus spears cool too much before you are ready to put them on the steaks, cut them to size (it’s easier on your fingers when they’re cooler) and then reheat them for a minute or so in the microwave. (Save any leftover asparagus spears for a luscious asparagus, ham, and cheese omelet.)

Light the candles. Place the dinner and salad plates on the table and sit down to a well-deserved, relaxed, and romantic dinner. If the kids try to interrupt, threaten to banish them to the Arctic Circle.

Leave the No-Bake Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it. While serving it at the table after dinner is nice, taking your slices up to bed for a late evening nosh is even better (and delightfully decadent).

And, finally, here’s the recipes.

Steak Oskar

• 2 6 to 8-ounce beef filets
• 8 frozen asparagus spears, steamed
• 4 ounces canned crabmeat
• 2 egg yolks
• 6 ounces butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• dash Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon tarragon

Whip the eggs in a metal mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Place the mixture in a double boiler over steaming (but not boiling!) water. Heat, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the butter, stirring constantly.

Add the vinegar and tarragon to a small skillet. Boil until almost dry. Add to the sauce and set aside.

Grill the steaks to the desired temperature.

Trim the asparagus spears to the size of the steaks. (Toss the bits you cut off into the Field Of Greens Salad. Waste not; want not.) Place the asparagus spears on top of the steaks. Garnish with the crabmeat and the sauce.

Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Field Of Greens Salad

• 4 cups prewashed field greens
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow tomato, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives or green onions
• 1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
• your choice of salad dressing

Divide the field greens evenly between two salad plates or bowls. Distribute the sliced radishes, chopped tomato, chopped chives or green onions, and chopped hard-boiled egg over the salad greens. Top with your favorite salad dressing.

Serves two.

No-Bake Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake

• 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 8 ounces heavy cream
• 3 packets sugar free hot cocoa mix
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee crystals
• 6 packets artificial sweetener
• 1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Completely dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water. Stir in the coffee. Put mixture in the freezer for a few minutes to cool.

Whip the cream and set aside.

In another bowl, combine the cream cheese, artificial sweetener, and sugar free cocoa mix. Use an electric hand mixer to combine them thoroughly.

When coffee/gelatin mixture is just warm/hot, add it to the cream cheese mixture and mix well. Lightly fold in the whipped cream and pour the mixture into a pie plate.

Let it set up in the refrigerator for a few hours. Cut into 8 slices.

Garnish with additional artificially whipped cream, if desired.

Serves 8 with 4.4 grams of carbohydrates per slice.