Chef Hus
Cook Date: 3/26/18
Location: Valencia, Spain

Dry Aged Steak – The beauty of it is, you really don’t need to do much besides salt and pepper

Having had our fill of Paella (which is possible), we decided to take yet another trip to Carrefour (somehow we ended up there every day). We made our way over to the butcher, and I saw they had 20 day dry aged steak for 20 euro/kilo! My dad had eaten it in a restaurant, but I’m not sure that he really knew what it was. When I pointed it out, he said “you want that one? With the mold on it?” To which I replied, “yeah man, that’s how you can tell it’s good.” It wasn’t really mold though, just dried meat. All of the flavor was on the inside. Which he would soon bear witness to.

What I did

1. I Put some grinded sea salt and peppercorn on a plate, lay the meat on it, so it got a nice coat all around. Let it sit for about an hour (due to time constraints, aka hungry parents and Kat – otherwise I would have let it sit a bit longer).
2. I seared them on a high heat (in Spanish extra virgin olive oil) in a cast iron skillet to get each side nice and brown (*only flipping once*). I threw in a sprig of rosemary and crushed garlic in the pan for flavor.
3. I removed the meat and put it on the center rack in the oven at 150 Celsius – below the rack of meat, I was roasting some vegetables. The pan of veggies caught the meat drippings, preventing a mess and adding some serious flavor.
4. While the meat was in the oven, I used a splash of bourbon to deglaze the cast iron (still on the stove), loosening the leftover “good stuff.” I added some chopped onion and fresh garlic to simmer. Later adding fresh rosemary, sage, crushed black pepper, and a wad of butter to finish off a delicious pan sauce.
5. I took the meat out of the oven after 15 minutes and let it rest for another 20 wrapped in foil.
6. When we cut the meat, it looked quite rare, but had a nice texture. Kat and my Mom both enjoyed it, despite typically being connoisseurs of the medium rare. I served the pan sauce on the side.

Recap for the lazy readers

• Coat meat in salt and pepper, sit for an hour
• Sear on both sides, flipping once
• Oven 150c for 15 minutes
• 20 min in foil, resting
• Pan sauce: deglaze with bourbon, onion, garlic, rosemary, sage, pepper, butter