Saturday Night Steak

1.75 lbs of beefy deliciousness
I haven't had a good steak since before I left for France almost a month ago. I did eat some crappy, thin, tough, tasteless piece of beef (calling it "steak" would be an insult to all good cuts of meat out there) in Agen at some nameless restaurant near the train station. Oh, and one time I had a delicious cut of Charolais beef (from the Charolais breed of cows in Burgundy - yum). But really, while in Europe I tend to eat all the naughty bits that we don't see enough of here in the US. So lots of beef and pork cheeks, trotters, shanks, and pretty much anything else that would make most folks recoil. I live for that.

Still, there's something primal, if not primeval, about eating a really good chunk of beef. And not just some thin flank or hanger steak, both of which I love, but I'm talking a real, juicy, thick-cut, dry-aged hunk of well-marbled beef.

So, suffering from this most recent bout of bloodlust, I headed off to my local butcher and ordered a gorgeous, thick, prime 28-day dry-aged boneless sirloin. A friend had mentioned how he aged it even more by leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight. Unsure of the sanity of this, I decided what the Hell, you only live once, and if I can die biting into a savory piece of steak, then I will die happily.

Another friend, Aaron Demello, of Montreal, had told me of a process to cook beef in apartments without any loss of flavor but with lots less smoke. As someone who tended to sear his steaks on a Lodge grill pan set on top of the stove, this was something I was intrigued by. The last time, there had been so much smoke that my building's fire alarms went off, the doormen were calling upstairs to find out why flames were shooting out of my kitchen, and my victims, er, guests, disappeared in a roiling cloud of beefy fog.

The bed of salt on the grill pan
Aaron advocated putting the grill pan in the oven and pre-heating it at the max temperature (525F for my Bosch) for about 30-60 minutes. Once everything was nice and toasty, he told me to sprinkle some coarse sea salt on the pan, then drop the beef on it and close the oven. Now, I like Aaron, but he is sorely misguided in telling me to cook the steak for an obscene amount of time. Sadly, Aaron is one of those poor souls who prefer their steaks medium rare. Poor thing. Everyone knows real meat-eaters like it rare.

Doing some quick calculations, I figured that 4 minutes on each side at 525F would be right. And boy, was I correct. The steak came out with a gorgeous char, and the amount of smoke was completely tolerable. Granted, I had some windows open and my ditzy little over-the-range blower on max.

A nice char
I let the steak sit for a few minutes, then began slicing. To my delight, the meat was perfectly cooked, a deep red rare. Now, that is one cow that is happy with me.

Perfectly cooked
I had also made some roasted potatoes with onions, garlic and herbs, and while the steak sat I wilted some spinach, then tossed it with some fresh baby arugula. I like the mix of the two, the dark spinach with the light-colored roquette, the earthiness of the spinach being accented by the spiciness of the arugula.

Dinner's served
Oh, yeah, we drank some nice wines too.

While I prepped, we popped a NV Pierre Peters Blanc de Blancs Champagne. This was a bit tight at first, but opened up quite nicely to show some real class and lovely Chardonnay aspects on a yeasty frame. Really like drinking a Grand Cru white from the Cote d'Or with bubbles in it. Gorgeous, especially with the cheeses (aged Comte and old Manchego). Then, with the meat, I opened a 1998 Louis Jadot Nuits St Georges Les Damodes 1er Cru, which showed some earthy, mushroomy cherries with some slightly shrill acidity. Nice but I was hoping for better.

So, many thanks and merci go to my friend Aaron for teaching me this smoke-less roasting method, perfect for a small New York City apartment's kitchen. And my bloodlust has been sated.

For now...
Cheers!