Steak with Red Wine Cherry Sauce

I'm a steak lover.  Connie could care less whether he ever has another steak or not.  He'd much prefer a wonderful grilled fish fillet.  So, when I serve steak, I normally serve rather small portions.  And, I balance it with plenty of vegetables and salad.  So, I admit, I've been craving steak.  We went to Sam's on Thursday evening and I splurged on three rib-eyes - smallest package they had.  Friday while Connie was playing bridge I fixed one of them.  Screaming hot cast iron skillet, lots of pepper and Worcestershire, great crust, rare meat.  Fabulous.  Even if it was eaten at 9:00 pm thanks to too much to do and not enough time.  Tonight it was time for a bit more gentle treatment.  I thought about cutting one steak in half and reserving the rest but didn't do so.  As it turned out, I made it through about a third of mine and Connie made it through almost all of his.  As he said, it was so good it was difficult to quit eating.  I quite agree.  This was a fabulous steak!  I got the recipe from a magazine that was sent to finish up the term of one that bit the dust.  I'm not sure what the original one was but the replacement was Country Woman.  Full of cheesy kitchens and kitschy stuff.  Not my kind of magazine.  But, on occasion, a really good recipe.  And, the good news is the we have enough left over to make steak fajitas!

Steaks with Red Wine and Cherry Sauce
2 steaks - filets or rib eyes will work best
2 t Kosher salt
2 t coarsely ground pepper
1 c dry red wine
1/4 c chopped red onion
1/4 c chopped shallot
1/3 c raisins (I used the mixed bag from Trader Joe's)
1/3 c dried cherries
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t corn starch
1 1/2 t dry mustard
2 t cold water
1/2 c crumbled blue cheese

Bring the steaks to room temperature.  Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper and rub the seasonings in. 

In a small skillet, pour in the red wine.  Add the onion, shallot, raisins, cherries and sugar.  Simmer until the wine is reduced by half and the onions are tender. 

In a small bowl, mix the corn starch, dry mustard and cold water.  Add the slurry to the onion mixture and stir until thickened.  Reduce heat to low.  You can add more red wine as needed to thin the mixture.  Be sure to simmer this for at least ten minutes to allow the dry mustard flavor to bloom.  Grill the steaks on direct high heat to form a good crust, then move to a cooler part of the grill to finish cooking. 

To serve, put a steak on a dinner plate.  Top it with half the sauce, then 1/4 c blue cheese.  Make sure you do this while the steak is very hot so the blue cheese can melt a bit.