Consumed

Ribeyes. Broccoli. Oh, yeah.

Lean beef cuts like sirloin may be where it’s at these days with the diet mavens - and I take the point - but I must confess a weakness for well-marbled ribeye.

So I took two ribeye steaks, each about an inch thick, covered them with a sheet of plastic wrap and left them on the counter to gradually warm to room temperature. Put a cast iron skillet in a 500° oven to get good and hot. Set an oven mitt in plain sight so I wouldn’t forget it, because , you know, I’m just like that.

Cut up a couple of servings of broccoli florets, rinsed them, set them up in a veggie steamer in a covered pot containing a half-inch of water.

Made up a new batch of grillmaster Steven Raichlen’s Java Rub recipe, which follows (not sure if this recipe from Raichlen’s handy How to Grill is the same formulation as his marketed “Java Rub”).

6 tablespoons ground coffee
2 tbsp coarse or kosher salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp paprika
2 teaspoons ground pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Mixed all in a bowl; used my hand rather than a whisk or fork, which was really helpful in breaking up those pesky lumps of brown sugar.

Used my spiffy oil sprayer to lightly coat the steaks with extra-virgin olive oil, then coated both sides of the steaks with the Java Rub. Followed Alton Brown’s advice in I’m Just Here for the Food, v.2.0 about really massaging the rub into the meat, then waiting a few minutes while the salt in the rub brought the liquid within to the surface. Then I applied more rub, worked it once more into the steaks, let them sit a bit.

In a small saucepan, I combined the following and set the burner to low:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp water

Kept an eye on the saucepan, stirring every so often. Once it’s was all mixed and starting to bubble, I turned off the heat. (After cooling for a while, this mixture develops a taut skin. Just stir it away and don’t think about it.)

I put on the oven mitt and removed the hot cast iron skillet, placing it over medium-high heat on the stovetop. I put the steaks in the skillet and let them sit for ninety seconds, then turned them with tongs and let them sit once more for ninety seconds. (This is longer than the thirty seconds per side that Brown suggests in his Pan Seared Rib Eye recipe, but it’s my kitchen.)

I then turned off the burner under the skillet, made sure I was still wearing the oven mitt, and put the skillet back into the 500° oven. I set the timer for two minutes.

I then started the burner under the pot with the broccoli, medium heat.

When the oven timer went off, I used my hand-with-the-oven-mitt to pull out the skillet. I turned the steaks with the tongs, then set the skillet back into the oven for another two minutes. When time had elapsed, I shut the oven off, withdrew the skillet from the oven, and transferred the steaks to a plate. I “tented the steaks loosely with foil” (always loved that phrase) to let them sit for two minutes.

The broccoli was done by now, so I removed it from the steamer and divided it between two small bowls. I spooned the warm four-part sauce over the broccoli. I transferred the steaks to serving plates. Then, along with my wife, I ate dinner.

Verdict: success. I was highly pleased with the steaks - the vigorous application of the rub really made a difference. The ribeyes were tender and rich with flavor. Confession: I was going to leave a large leftover portion of my steak for tomorrow, but that intention quickly went by the boards.

I wonder if the actual rubbing-in of the rub assists in breaking down fibers in the meat? If I were a real cook, I would know.

Update: A fair number of ribeye-recipe hunters have found this page, so I thought I should add a pic of what the finished product looks like:

Yeah, that’s good eatin’. The small glass pan in back contains the above-mentioned broccoli sauce.

Another update: Give the ribeyes a chance to warm up from cold death; take them out of the fridge twenty minutes or so before you start cooking them.

Also: When you let them rest after removing them from the oven, don’t let them just sit in a pool of their own juices. Put a rack over the plate, or line up a bunch of skewers or chopsticks or such on the plate and then put the steaks on those. Then tent with foil.

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