Steaks

I'm getting ready for surgery tomorrow for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on my left hand (right hand soon after) and I was craving a steak dinner before the event. My wife is visiting th grandkids tonight so I'm alone to cook so I started cruising the freezer for a single packed steak. Lo and behold I found one and decided to do a little grilling tonight. I'm a steak purist, if you will. I just enjoy good beef flavor with nothing but Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper for adornments. there are some exceptions to that but more on that later. I also like the steak done medium rare to almost rare so that's how we rolled tonight. I really don't care about grill marks for presentation unless I'm cooking for some special guest so I just go for the right doneness. If you like the grill marks, go for it! The steak Ifound is one Teresa and I enjoy for the flavor and tenderness and that is a chuck-eye. It is also a very nicely priced steak at about $4.95/ lb. there is a good amount of marbling and I find them usually cut at about 1-1 1/4" thick which I like for grilling to get the right ratio of crust to tenderness. I realize that steak afficianados will scoff at me for using chuck-eyes but I really like them! Ribeyes are marvelous too, but at about $10.00/lb I like the price of the chuck-eye. Give them a try and see if you agree.
Back to those accoutrements for the steak; I shared a while ago about making smoked salt and this is a great place to use it. I season the steak before cooking with regular Kosher salt and pepper before grilling and then after they are done I sprinkle on a generous amount of smoked salt and some more pepper. Awesome!
As a side note to great steaks, I found a good tip in Cook's Illustrated this month for home aging steaks. It's pretty simple. They suggested wrapping the steaks individually in cheesecloth and placing them on a wire rack in the bottom rear or coldest spot in the refrigerator for up to 4 days ( the longest they felt safe leaving them there). The cheesecloth prevents the steaks from drying out too fast but still allows them to "breathe" enough for good results. Their testing resulted in a steak that tasted exactly like aged steaks they had purchased from a butcher for double the money. I haven't tried it yet but our gourmet dinner group is going to try this at our next event in March where our theme is "steakhouse night" including onion rings with horseradish dipping sauce and spiked shakes, blackout cake and a few other items I'll report on later. speaking of which, the onion rings are a replica of my favorite ring from Norman Quack's in Forest Lake, MN. In my opinion, the best I have ever eaten; the coating is light, crisp and perfectly seasoned and they are made fresh for every order. Unbelievable! I'll include the recipe and how I figured it out in a future post.
Eat well, my friends,
Tim