A boys' dinner

Whenever Connie goes out in the evening, Kai and I will do something interesting for dinner. Usually this means going out to one of the many great restaurants in Vancouver but sometimes we stay home and I cook. Tonight it was steak on the barbecue. Kai is a bit of carnivore like me, he loves his steak, sausages and porkbelly. Tonight was classic New York strips, corn on the cob and Caesar salad. Can`t get more basic than that.

Cooking steaks is very simple, I have a pretty fool-proof process that is hard to mess up. First off, take the steaks out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature. Then season them very generously with Kosher salt and black pepper then set them aside. Turn the grill up to full blast, 500F or thereabouts. When the grill is nova-hot, sear the steaks for about two minutes on each side, then turn off the burner under the steaks and finish them off with indirect heat. I like mine medium-rare, for a 1-inch thick NY strip, this takes about another 5 minutes. Let them sit under some foil while you prep the rest of the food and you're good to go.

Kai devoured most of his steak, quite impressive. Makes his dad proud.

For me, dessert is essential. This time I indulged a little, I had some Port style wine and superb 83% dark chocolate on hand.

Thomas Haas makes some of the finest chocolate I know. His 83% dark is just perfectly flavored.

The wine I had it with is called 'Pipe', made by a winery in the Okanagan (my favorite place in BC, more about it in future posts!) called Sumac Ridge. This one I aged for a while and opened previously when we had company. I am still enjoying the remainder. Such a lovely wine with deep, dark fruit, intensely sweet without being cloying. I have a few more bottles in my 'cellar' (the closet in Kai's room, being the most temperature neutral place in the house) and look forward to those in the years to come!