Sunday, August 4th: Crostini of whipped feta and tomato, Cowboy Steaks, Caprese Salad, Orzo Salad, Key Lime Pies (individual)

EAT AT JULIE’S

The best dinner of the last two weeks was served last Sunday at Julie’s house.  Hilda and Tim and Barbara and I were lucky enough to be in attendance.  Hilda brought a fantastic Caprese salad with real, old-fashioned tomatoes from the Friday family farm where they had rusticated the day before.  We brought some crostini to munch on while Julie was cooking.  And Julie made irresistible garlic monkey bread, a tasty orzo salad, and incredibly decadent (think Oscar Wilde*) individual Key lime pies for dessert.

*We’re referring to Wilde’s haberdashery here, not his dating habits.  Get your mind out of the gutter – this a food blog, for heaven’s sake.

But the focus of this short post will be the greatest steak I have eaten in the last decade:  Julie’s Cowboy Steaks.  You might say that Julie was using Ina Garden’s recipe.  But then, you might say that Ina Garten was using Mark Lobel’s recipe (he’s a butcher with a shop in Manhattan).  And really who knows where Mark got it from?  The whole thing probably goes back to a particularly clever Neanderthal method for cooking auroch steaks.

The recipe for this spectacular beef is below, but the key to the whole thing is how you cook it – a quick sear over very hot coals followed by a slow roast on the cooler side your grill.  If you cook a steak this way and do it right, you will be appreciated by your family and friends.  And if you’d like to be loved and revered as well, you should invite Julie with her orzo, Key lime pies and monkey bread, Hilda and Tim with their Caprese, and Barbara and Bill with their crostini to share in the meal. 

Julie’s Cowboy Steaks

Timing:          2 hours or longer to marinate, temperature while coals or grill is heating,  plus 30 minutes to cook, rest and slice.

Ingredients:

Three 1½-inch thick New York strip steaks

Kosher salt, ground black pepper

2 teaspoons brown sugar, 2 teaspoons ground coffee (regular or decaf)

1 teaspoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 ½ tablespoons good olive oil

Marinate the steaks

Combine 2 tablespoons salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper, the brown sugar, coffee, garlic, chipotle powder and red pepper flakes in a bowl.

Pat the steaks dry and place them in a baking dish and rub them all over with the olive oil.  Then rub the steaks on both sides with the spice mix, using it all.  Cover the dish and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Prep, Cook and Finish

Heat enough charcoal to cover half your grill – you need to have one hot and one cool side.  Pour a layer of the hot coals on one side of the grill.

Cook the steaks on the hot side of the grill for exactly 2 minutes on each side, then move to the cool side of the grill, make sure the vents are open and cover the grill.  Now you’ll want to cook for maybe 9 minutes more or until an instant-read thermometer registers between 115 and 120 degrees for medium rare.*

Transfer to a platter and cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 15 minutes.

Remove the foil, slice, sprinkle with salt (Maldon Sea Salt is perfect for this) and serve hot or warm.

*In Fox Chapel medium-rare is the standard.  120-125 degrees will yield a medium cook, but don’t do it.