Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin

For dinner tonight, I wanted to make another meal in my Le Creuset skillet. I opted for steak au poivre, but I'll tell you, the cut of steak I picked (a huge sirloin of 2 pounds I bought for $10) had way too much fat for my liking and I ended up cooking it medium-rare when I really don't like my meat with 'red.'

The menu:
Appetizer: dates
The meal: Steak au poivre with cauliflower-spinach gratin, with bread leftover from last night's Italian dinner with family
The wine: a French Cabernet Sauvignon, selected by a French friend

First, for an appetizer, I sliced some whole dates to get the pits out and arranged two dates on each bread plate like a flower.

Steak au poivre (Steak with pepper)
from the Internet (I no longer have the source)

• 4 (3/4 to 1 inch thick) boneless top-loin (strip) steaks 8-10 ounces each
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (I use iodized sea salt)
• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns (I use organic four color peppercorns)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 1/3 cup finely cut shallots (I substitute fresh chives and tonight I omitted them completely, but I thought it was detrimental to the gravy.)
• 1/2 stick butter, cut into four pieces of one tablespoon each
• 1/2 cup cognac or other brandy
• 3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Pat steaks dry and season both sides with salt. Gently crush peppercorns using the bottom of a heavy skillet and press pepper evenly into both sides of meat.

Heat a 12-inch cast iron skillet over moderately high heat until hot (about three minutes). Add oil. Swirl evenly. Sauté steaks in two batches, turning over once. About six minutes for medium-rare.

Transfer steaks to heatproof platter. Place in oven to keep warm.

Drain fat from skillet. Add shallots and half the butter to the skillet and cook the shallots over moderately high heat, scraping, until shallots are well-browned all over.

Add cognac. (It may ignite!) Boil, stirring, until liquid is reduced to a glaze, 2 to 3 minutes. Add cream and any meat juices from the platter. Boil, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half. Add remaining butter and cook over low heat until incorporated. Serve sauce with steaks.

The gratin is an adaption from a recipe that appeared in Wegmans magazine.

Cauliflower and Spinach gratin:

• 1 head cauliflower, stemmed and cut into nice serving pieces
• 10 ounces spinach (I used 1 package frozen chopped spinach, heated and drained)
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
  
• Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzerella
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Combine the cauliflower, the spinach, the milk, the cream, the seasonings, and the mozzerella and half the breadcrumbs. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Add mixture to pan. Cook for 20 minutes at 350. Stir. Cook another 20 minutes. Combine remaining bread crumbs with olive oil. Sprinkle on gratin and return to oven for a final 15 minutes.