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09 September 2010

Perfect Argentine steak

We don't make steak often in the Dude household.  Quite frankly, steak makes me a bit nervous.  It's expensive, and it's easy to ruin. Two minutes too long, and your medium-rare steak is medium.  In that sense, brisket is a lot easier.  The difference between underdone and overdone brisket is measured in hours, not minutes.  There's plenty of time to make decisions.

But I'd like to make steak more often.  And I found some very interesting lessons written in Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way.  And apparently, the Argentine way requires serving it with a chimichurri sauce.  So first, make the chimichurri sauce (the book recommends making it at least a day in advance - I made it 4 hours in advance).

Then, warm some:
boneless rib-eye steaks
to room temperature.  Season with:
salt
Light a fire and heat the grill to the point where you can hold your hand above the grill for 2 ½ seconds. No more, no less.  Throw those beautiful steaks on the grill.

Grilling steak

Take a gratuitous chimichurri/steak shot.

Chimichurri with steak

Cook the steak for 5 minutes, check the underside for nice grill marks, then rotate 90°.  Cook 4 more minutes, then flip.

Grilling steak

Cook 7ish minutes, or until it starts to firm up for medium-rare.  Cook 9ish minutes for medium.

Steak with chimichurri

Serve slathered in chimichurri sauce.

This was quite simply the best steak I've ever made.  Perfectly cooked.  Nice amount of fat.  And that chimichurri sauce is just fantastic on top of the steak (not to mention comely).  Adds a lovely fragrance and an amazing flavour to the steak.  Extremely complementary.  We'll be making this again.

Served with:

Syrah

4 comments:

  1. John K.September 10, 2010 at 2:56 PM

    Those are some tasty looking steaks my friend! You have no reason to fear steaks anymore. Perfect technique. They really are quite simple. and if you can master brisket, steak is a no brainer. One thing that helps me is a thermometer. And you went with what is in my book the best steak there is -- the rib eye.

    Great job!!

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  2. Indirect HeatSeptember 11, 2010 at 1:55 PM

    John,

    Thanks. Steak is becoming a more regular part of my repertoire. Practice practice.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AstridSeptember 12, 2010 at 5:25 AM

    Wow, great pics. I'll schedule this for next weekend - thanks for making steak stress free. I know what you mean about ruining an expensive piece of meat.

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  4. JonnyJune 25, 2012 at 5:25 AM

    We're big fans of Francis Mallmann, not to mention of the Argentine/Uruguayan style of meat preparation. There are plenty of variations on the chimichurri sauce, some with more herbs, some with more heat, some put through a blender and resembling something between ketchup and hot sauce, but all are delicious when they mingle with the juices running out of the meat. Great work.

    ReplyDelete