Saturday, November 22, 2008

Another Beautifully Done Steak





I went to the butcher at my local grocery store and asked the kid behind the counter to cut me a 2 inch thick New York Strip (NYS). And he hands me this:



Something looks a bit off. 2 inches? This isn't a steak, it's a roast. Where's that tape measure?


OK, so it's 3.5 inches thick. Part of me wants to grill it as is. A big part of me. But in the end I decided on going with my original idea of a 2 inch steak and sliced that hunk in two.


I marinaded that bad boy in Andria's, Worcestershire, garlic, black pepper and a little coke. I pulled it out of the fridge about an hour before I planned to cook it so it could come up to room temperature. Right before I put it on the grill I sprinkled some coarse salt on it and some more fresh cracked black pepper.

Now I need a proper beverage to have with this magnificent steak. I think a Marquis Phillips Sarah's Blend Shiraz will suffice.


Now that I was properly imbibing its back to the grillin. Funny how those two things go so well together. Is that what they mean by grillin and chillin?

As always when I do steaks I let them come up to room temperature before I put them on the grill and then I do two zone grilling - Coals on one side, nothing on the other.

Now it's time to sear in those juices. I don't mess around with this. There is only one way to sear those juices in properly and that's with a wicked hot fire and some direct scorching from an open flame. Simply dribble a little veggie oil over the white hot coals

***Disclaimer - I do not recommend doing this near siding, a wood deck or anything else that could melt or catch on fire. Also avoid doing this in high wind.

One trick, if the fire isn't quite hot enough to ignite the oil, drop a piece of newspaper in between the grill grate. The paper has a much lower smoke point than oil, so once it ignites, pour some oil near it, not right on top as you may put the fire out, and you have a nice flame.

Now that I have a nice flame going time to sear in those juices. I drop that huge chunk of meat right in the middle of the flames.


Here is the steak nicely seared on each side and off to the side to bake a little.


Don't be afraid to let that steak char a bit around the edges. That steak is perfectly seared and right now very rare. I prefer the steak between rare and medium rare so I am going to bake this on the other side of the grill with no coals for only a couple minutes with the lid on and the vents closed. Closing the vents will keep the heat in better and start to put the fire out. One of the beautiful things about a Weber is that it seals so tightly that it will put the coals out and they can be reused in future grill sessions.

I let this bad boy rest about 4 minutes considering the thickness. Then I plated it, and sliced it. So here's the money shot.


And of course a closeup of the money shot


That steak was absolutely delicious....

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