Pleased to Meat you

So. Pop quiz: Did you guys try making the hunter's chicken yet? Those that did, you get an A. Those slackers who think I'm doing this for my health, you fail. That's what I call tough love. I'm doing this for you, the masses who needed a guru to guide them on their culinary adventures to an epicurean nirvana. Yeah, I know I'm blowing smoke, but you love it.

©Raj Rao

Anyway, this time I am back with a collaboration dish with my best buddy Jimmy, a.k.a Culinary Maestro. So we are chilling, watching the Cooking Channel (check your local listings) and in a moment of impulse and inspiration we pretty much talked ourselves into rushing to Central Market (a culinary Mecca) to get the ingredients to recreate and put our own personal stamp on steak and veggies. Oh yeah, we're doing it big this time. It was either that or PBJ sandwiches for dinner and these playas don't play.

Now before I enlighten you as to the how, you gotta let me jump ahead to the end a little. This dish is simple gourmet done right and any man would be proud to take credit for this. I'm talking ribeye steak rubbed to seasoned perfection and cooked till it is melt-in-your-mouth-backhand-your-mamma good. Oh yes, that good. It's quick, it's simple and it's gourmet. What more can I do for you? Seriously. 

Ok now the how.

Ingredients:

Boneless rib eye steak (1-1 ½ inch thickness) – 4 pieces

Asparagus – 1 lb

Heirloom carrots – ½ lb

Herb Butter – 1 stick

Lemon – 1

Shallots –

Eggs – 4

Garlic – 6 cloves

Tabasco Sauce – 1 table spoon

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil

Maestro's Dry Rub for the steak:

Cumin – 2 table spoon

Paprika – 1 table spoon

Celery Salt – 1 table spoon

Cracked black pepper – 2 table spoons

Salt – 1 table spoon

Chili powder – 1 table spoon

Red chili flakes – ½ table spoon

Steak:

Combine the entire dry rub in a bowl and coat the steaks liberally with it. Be generous in the coating and you will be rewarded in the end. Let the steaks sit for a few minutes before searing. A-ha, catch phrase number one – SEARING. This means cooking on extreme heat. This is to ensure that an outer crust is formed which seals the flavor inside the steak.

Add oil in a cast iron skillet and put it on high heat. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, go get one. If you can’t afford it, borrow from someone. If you can’t find someone who has it look for a local garage sale and get one. No exceptions.

Once the oil is extremely hot, put the steaks in the skillet. Do not crowd the skillet. Leave the steaks to cook on each side for at least 2 minutes. Do not move, poke, jiggle or touch the steak. Just look at your stop watch. Once the two minutes is up flip the steaks and cook for another 2 minutes. While this is happening make sure your oven is set at 400 degrees.

After the final 2 minutes place the entire skillet with the steaks in the oven and let it cook for approximately 5 to 7 minutes until medium rare. If you don’t like it medium rare then cook it for an extra 5 minutes and you will get your desired leather.

After 5 minutes take the skillet out and let the steaks sit on a covered platter. Let them rest for AT LEAST 15 minutes. Do not cut into it because all your hard work and valuable flavors will pretty much be lost.

Right before serving, place about one table spoon of the herb butter on each steak to elevate the taste to greatness. 

Heirloom Carrots: 

Introducing... the world famous Culinary Maestro in the building!

Also known as White Satin carrots. There are a few schools of thought on what is considered an Heirloom plant.  Many gardeners consider 1951 to be the latest year a plant could have originated and still be an heirloom.  Heirloom plants will have a decisive look to them because they have adapted to the climate and soil they are grown in. 

Cut the Heirloom carrots in half lengthwise, which will decrease cooking time and allow the carrots to soak up the seasoning. Place the carrots on a sheet pan. You will need to space out the carrots so that they can crisp up during the baking process.  Sprinkle black pepper, Fleur De Sel, (French Salt, aka the best of the best), the juice of 1/2 a Meyer lemon, ½ a diced shallot, 3 cloves of chopped garlic and a generous amount of olive oil to coat the carrots. The olive oil will enable the carrot to crisp up quicker.

**Side note: white carrots are great for soaking up the lemon juice and olive oil, and in our opinion are more desirable than their orange counterparts.  The carrots will take approximately 10 minutes to cook and then they are ready to be served.

Asparagus:

©Raj Rao

Boil some water in a pot and add salt. When the water is boiling, drop the asparagus in it and let them hang out there for about 2 minutes. Then remove the asparagus and immediately drop them in an ice bath. This is not something you bathe in after watching Kim Kardashian jog on a beach, an ice bath is a bowl that has ice and water and is used to stop the cooking of anything you drop in it. You are pretty much shocking the food. This technique is called blanching, catch phrase number two. 

Dice half a shallot and 3 cloves of garlic. Add some olive oil in a skillet. Sauté the garlic and shallots in it. After a few minutes add the blanched asparagus and cook them for about 2 minutes. Add some salt and pepper to taste and remove the asparagus.

Hollandaise Sauce:

Separate 4 egg yolks and put them in a mixing bowl. Place the mixing bowl over a double boiler, catch phrase number 3. A double boiler or bain marie is a method to cook sauces without boiling or burning them. You are pretty much cooking the sauce in steam. The way to set it up is to bring a pot of water to boil. Then place a mixing bowl on it and make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the boiling water. Whisk the egg on the double boiler until it has doubled in volume and changed to a lighter pale colour. This is where all the hours you spent pumping iron in the gym will come into play. Once the colour has changed, you add the juice of half a lemon and keep whisking like your life depends on it. Add salt and Tabasco© sauce and butter and whisk for another few minutes. The sauce will look creamy and glossy.

Serve the hollandaise sauce alongside the sautéed asparagus.

The best part:

©Raj Rao

Being patient and letting the steaks sit for at least 15 minutes before eating pays off.  All the juices and flavor spread all over the steak which results in a perfectly cooked steak.  The dry rub gives the steak an extra depth of flavor and a moist, tender texture on the inside while the outside had a deep flavorful crust.   Mmmnn... just like buttuh baby.

Serve this steak with a good glass of Pinot Noir.

The asparagus are fresh, crisp and mild tasting which complements the bold taste of the steak very well and adding the hollandaise sauce over them gives it that extra punch of taste that was needed.

The carrots... I mean.. it's a beautiful thing ETF Nation. They have a rich brown color to them and the sides of the carrots come out crisp while the center stays tender and soaks up all the flavors from the lemon, oil, salt and pepper like a sponge. The natural sweetness of the carrots combines well with the tartness from the lemon.

©Raj Rao

So get off that couch, chair or tree you are living on and make this dish and call me a liar when I say you will backhand your mamma AND your aunt, its so good. Share your thoughts with us. It’s very simple to make and you can do it in no time. 

Thank you for tuning in to the world's greatest..... this has been a Guru-Maestro collabo production. And once you make this pimp dish... why don't you go and brush your shoulders off...