Here's the Rub: Coffee on Steak

So the steaks got made and the grill got used. It was... ok. Not my favorite of all time. Here's the rundown on the rubdown:

I pulled the steaks out and let them warm up to room temp for about an hour. They looked lovely.










Meanwhile, I assembled the rub which ended up something like this...

1/8 c. chili powder
1/8 c. ground coffee
1 T each paprika & Lt. brown sugar
1 t each Mustard Powder, S & P, Oregano, Coriander, Cinnamon, Garlic Powder, Cayenne Pepper and Thai Red Curry paste.

...and looking like this:



Couple tips about applying rubs: bring the steaks to room temp and then brush first with a little olive oil - this will make the rub easier to spread with your hands and stick to the meat. I also recommend dumping the rub on from the bowl as opposed to dredging the meat so you can save any unused portion without worrying about it being contaminated by the raw meat.

I applied the rub and let it rest on the meat for an hour. Meanwhile, I sliced the sweet potato and carrots into "steak fry"-esque shapes before piling them on a plate and drizzling with olive oil (for the record, you will NEVER see me refer to olive oil as EVOO on here. I could shoot Rachel Ray for that) and hitting them with some s & p. I also dusted with a bit of cumin because it seemed like a good idea. A word on that...

Many times I do things while cooking that simply strike me at the time as being a good idea. I think this comes from building experience and your 'kitchen intuition' as I call it. I attribute the development of mine from working on the line in a kitchen, where you are called upon to multi-task at an incredible level. An order comes up and you throw the meat on the grill, pull out the pans you need for the sauce, the vegetable, grab what you need out of the refrigerator, unwrap stuff, throw stuff in pans, broiler up or down, check the meat, oil hot/butter melted yet for sauce? Tongs here, taste there, towel on your shoulder, plates warming in the over, check the meat! Veggie done yet? Reduce the sauce, hit with alcohol, flambe, plate warm? Turn the meat! Taste sauce, season, toss veggies, season, pull meat to rest, grab warm plates, make it look pretty, pile it on, garnish, clean the edges and get it out the door.

And that's just one entree. You're usually doing at least two of these at a time.

You only have to forget something and ruin a dish once or twice to start the mini-alarm clock growing in the back of your mind that will go off - ping! - when you need to pay attention to something. It's like one of those capsules you put in water and in an hour you have a 3 foot dinosaur. You evolve. You think on your feet and adjust as you go and make it work. You start looking at things as they cook and getting ideas. You start to trust yourself. It's pretty cool.

So I say, if you have an inkling in the kitchen of something that might work, give it a shot.

Now what the hell was I talking about? Oh yeah! The steaks! Well, the steaks were still resting so I moved on to figuring out what the heck to do with the Insanity Peppers Mark has growing in the backyard. I got an idea to roast one with some garlic and shallots in olive oil in a little hobo pack.







The Packing:

The Package:

Into the toaster oven for 1 hour at 400 degrees. I wasn't sure right then what I was going to do with the finished product but ultimately settled on mincing and mixing it with mayonnaise as a dip for the fries. The spice level was perfect!

Finally, the grill was unsheathed and fired up. On with the fries...



...and then the steaks...



Steak Fries and Meat!



Steak Fries and Meat and Captain Beyond!!

And finally, the finished product:


Much to my (our) dismay, the steak wasn't as tender as I thought it was going to be. The rub itself was wonderful - very rich with an even spice level that wasn't overpowering. The fries and mayo were also very tasty but mismatched for the meal. Overall, it was just too heavy.

NOTE TO SELF SECTION:
Next time, I'll try a more tender cut of meat (probably a Filet) and pair it with a green veggie (I'm thinking Chinese broccoli or asparagus) and a light, citrus-y sauce (probably a beurre noisette hit with some orange juice).

I give the meal 6 out of 10 Rics.



Next time, I will get the best of my rub. What?

Blogging Well; Eating Better

A blog. About food. Why not?

So here I go.

This is as much for me as you. Weeellll... actually probably more for me. Fact is, I love cooking and will cook something complicated from scratch given the time and inclination. I will try a recipe and then tweak it and then leave it for a while and then forget what I did and maybe go back to it some day - but maybe not - so I thought, well, heck, why don't I blog about it which will 1) keep track of my exploits and 2) hopefully amuse and/or educate those I know about food and cooking.

If you know me reasonably well, you will know that I am a fairly hard-core foodie. I loooove me some good food and quality ingrediants. My very first job in Chicago was in a kitchen - which was a position I had absolutely no business getting. A friend of mine (actually of Mark's) was a waitress at this place (the long gone Club Macanudo in the Gold Coast) and she wrangled a position for me there. The chef hired me and quit shortly there after. (Which is why, I suspect, he had no problem hiring me with absolutely NOTHING in the way food servce on my resume.) When the restaurant manager realized that he a new hire coming in that he didn't know at all, he asked my friend about me and my skills and she, God bless her, vouched for me all the way. You can imagine the surprise in the kitchen on my first day when one of the prep cooks told me to julienne some vegetables only to recieve a blank look from me. My education started immediately.

I will leave the Macanudo story for now... I am sure I will be coming back to my experiences that often but, suffice it to say, that was the beginning of how I learned to cook.

Now, on to more important things. Namely, the 2 beautiful grass-fed, dry-aged, New York strip steaks I have waiting in the fridge. Mark mentioned maybe experimenting with dry rubs that include coffee and that was all I needed to spark inspiration.

I started my research the way I always do: by googling a bunch of recipes to see how they differ from each other. I like seeing how intepretations will vary from pro chef to home cook to region. I will then usually pick a recipe that catches my eye or come up with a synthesis. Today's rub will be a synthesis using a coffee rub by Bobby Flay that I found on Epicurious.com as the base. I'm toying with the idea of using Thai spices (I'm thinking red curry paste) instead of his ubiquitous ancho chilies... we'll see how I feel. With it, I plan on grilling some sweet potato, sliced home-fries style (something I'm planning on serving with a dinner next week, so today I am experimenting with it) along with some grilled carrots (cuz we have some) to bring some sweet balance to the what I'm expecting will be a rather heavy, spicy steak. To top the steak, I'm thinking perhaps a chili creme sauce using one of the INSANELY hot peppers we have growing in the back yard. They're way too hot to serve as a side (I tried one last week and half my mouth was numb for an hour - and I'm no wimp when it comes to spicy) so I'm rather determined to figure out a way to use them.

Mark is working on mini-chocolate souffles for dessert.

This could be very, very good.

On a bummer note, I'd prefer to grill everything out back on the Weber but it keeps raining. I can pan-fry the steaks if need be but I'm really hoping the weather will pass... Mark doesn't have a cast iron skillet (I know, for shame) and mine is back at my place. The curse of separate house holds! I will keep looking skyward and, in the meantime, pull out my lovely steaks and get started...