This post may contain affiliate links.
There are few occasions that come around every year that require something really special. And a date night in—whether for Valentine’s Day or an anniversary—is the perfect excuse to make this elegant and decadent Steak Oscar dinner. Think steak and crab surf and turf, featuring a perfectly seared filet mignon topped with a lemony crab salad and drizzled with an easy, yet very restaurant-worthy, hollandaise sauce.
One of the appeals of going out to eat is you can order those hard-to-master dishes without any of the work, clean-up, or challenges of cooking every component perfectly. It can be tricky to cook the perfect filet mignon or make a homemade hollandaise sauce without it breaking.
But you’re in the right place because I’ve been cooking steak for years (have even done it on a stage or two—check it out in this Instagram video) and mastered this blender hollandaise sauce while earning my Culinary Food Science degree.
With the following recipe and tips, you can whip this up with confidence, and may even find yourself adding in one of you favorite potato side dishes (I’m partial to these Celery Root Mashed Potatoes with olive oil but the masses love my 5-star Potato Gratin with gruyere cheese).
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Lauren’s Steak Oscar
Traditionally, steak oscar features grilled filet mignon topped with crab, asparagus and either hollandaise sauce or bernaise sauce. My version is a bit more year-round and swaps asparagus for brighter, crunchier celery.
Ingredients You’ll Need
A full ingredient list, with measurements, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Filet Mignon: look for center-cut filet mignon—ideally, 1 ½ inches thick. Any thinner and they will cook through before a nice crust is formed on the exterior.
- Lump Crab Meat: unless you live in Maryland, it can be hard to get your hands on fresh lump crab meat. For those of us who don’t live on the coast, I recommend using quality canned lump crab meat that is sold either refrigerated or frozen.
- Celery: a bit of fresh parsley is tosed with the crab to make a quick “crab salad” while the rest is used as a refreshing and crunchy side dish.
- Parsley: lightens up the dish while keeping it a steakhouse classic.
- Lemons: lemon zest and juice is used in nearly every component of this dish. You’ll need 2 lemons.
- Butter: is the main ingredient in hollandaise sauce. Unsalted or salted will work, just pull back on the measured amount of salt by about ¼ teaspoon if using salted.
- Egg yolks: 2 large egg yolks are needed for the hollandaise sauce. Reserve egg whites for a morning scramble.
- Spices: kosher salt, black pepper and cayenne.
How to Make Steak Oscar
- Make the Crab Salad: this is the easiest part (and can be done a couple hours in advance). Drain the crab and pick it over to remove any shells. Toss the crab with the diced celery, lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley and olive oil; season it to taste with salt and pepper.
- Cook the Filet Mignon: Preheat a cast-iron skillet in a 450ºF oven. This does a few things—it heats the skillet evenly and gets it really hot which ensures a crisp sear the moment the steaks hit the skillet. And secondly, by not preheating the skillet on the stove top, you prevent smoking out your kitchen.
- Once the skillet is preheated, pat the steaks dry with a paper towel and season with salt and black pepper.
- Add a splash of oil to the skillet then add the steak and let them sear for 3 minutes (don’t move them!). Flip and continue cooking the steaks until they are browned on the second side, another 3 minutes.
- Transfer the skillet to the oven and continue cooking, flipping after 3 minutes, until steak is cooked to desired doneness—2–4 minutes for very rare, 4–6 minutes for rare (centers will appear red and soft), 6–8 minutes for medium-rare (centers will appear pink and feel firm but juicy), or 8–10 minutes for medium (centers will appear light pink and feel firm and compact).
- Transfer the steaks to a plate; tent loosely with foil, and let rest about 5 minutes before serving.
Tip: if you’re prepping your ingredients ahead of time, cover the egg yolks with plastic wrap so the surface of the yolks don’t dry out and form a skin.
- Make the Hollandaise Sauce: in a blender, process the egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne until frothy. Then, with the blender running, very slowly add the hot butter and process until the sauce is emulsified, this should take about 2 minutes. You may need to adjust the consistency of the sauce with hot water.
- Assemble: To serve, top each steak with half of the crab salad and spoon hollandaise sauce over top. Serve with celery salad on the side.
Mastering Hollandaise Sauce
- Hollandaise is best served immediately after making, so I don’t recommend making it ahead of time.
- When blending up the hollandaise, try not to rush adding the butter into the egg yolk mixture. Slow and steady will ensure the butter gets emulsified into the sauce.
- If your hollandaise sauce splits, you can easily fix it. Add an egg yolk to a double boiler and gradually (slower than the first time) whisk in the broken hollandaise sauce until it’s all combined and emulsified.
Round Out the Menu
When I serve this, I like to keep the menu simple and straightforward. The recipe includes a celery salad so the only thing missing is some fresh baked bread (try this quick No-Knead Focaccia with rye flour) and some dark chocolate truffles infused with red wine to end the meal.
Equipment Needed
Steak Oscar Recipe
Description
Save This Recipe!
We’ll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later.
Video
Ingredients
- 5 ounces lump crab meat *
- 4 stalks celery
- ½ small bunch parsley
- 1 lemon, zested juiced
- 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 (6- to 8-ounce) center-cut filets mignons, (ideally, 1 ½ inches thick)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 large egg yolks
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and hot (180ºF)
Instructions
- Finely dice 1 small stalk celery and mince 1 tablespoon parsley; add to a medium mixing bowl with 5 ounces crab, 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, 2 teaspoons lemon juice and 2 teaspoons olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
- Thinly slice remaining 3 stalks celery and add to a medium bowl with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar and 2 teaspoons olive oil. Toss to combine them season to taste with kosher salt and pepper.
- Heat oven to 450ºF (232ºC) with rack set in middle position; set a 12-inch cast-iron skillet on rack to preheat in oven.
- Meanwhile, melt 8 tablespoons butter for hollandaise in a small saucepan over low.
- Once skillet is preheated, remove and transfer to stove top over medium-high heat. Pat steaks dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper on all sides. Add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil to skillet, swirl to coat, then add steaks and sear for 3 minutes (don’t move them!). Flip and continue cooking steaks until browned on second side, another 3 minutes.
- Transfer skillet to oven and continue cooking, flipping after 3 minutes, until steak is cooked to desired doneness—2–4 minutes for very rare, 4–6 minutes for rare (120–125ºF; center will be red and soft), 6–8 minutes for medium-rare (125–130ºF; center will be pink yet firm), or 8–10 minutes for medium (135–140ºF; center will be light pink and very firm). Transfer steaks a plate; tent loosely with foil, and let rest while making hollandaise sauce.
- Process 2 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt, and pinch cayenne in blender until frothy, about 10 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of blender jar as needed. With blender running, slowly add hot butter and process until hollandaise is emulsified, about 2 minutes. Adjust consistency with hot water as needed until sauce slowly drips from spoon. Season with salt and extra cayenne to taste.
- To serve, place steaks on plate, top with crab salad and spoon hollandaise sauce over top. Serve with celery salad on side.
Notes
Nutrition
This post is written and created in partnership with the Iowa Beef Council. As always the thoughts, opinions, recipe, photos and content are all my own.
