Mastering the Grill_ The Owner's Manual for Outdoor Cooking - Andrew Schloss [101]
8. Sprinkle the sliced steak with the parsley and horseradish. Drizzle with the balsamic brown butter and serve.
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GRILL TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
• Long-handled tongs
TIP
• The balsamic brown butter sauce can be prepared in advance, left in the pan, and gently reheated just before serving.
SHADES OF BEURRE
The beurre noir in this recipe is a classic French butter sauce made by cooking butter over low heat until it is dark brown, or noir, in color. As the butter darkens, it develops rich and heady aromas. The key is to brown the butter slowly so that it doesn’t burn. If you cook the butter to a light brown color, it is called beurre noisette (hazelnut). Beurre blanc (white) is a butter sauce made by whisking cold butter into a mixture of wine, vinegar, and shallots.
TIMING
Prep: 15 minutes
Marinate: 2 to 6 hours
Grill: 6 to 10 minutes
GRILL TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
• Long-handled tongs
TIP
• Use a smoky-tasting Scotch like Laphroaig to enhance the smoke flavor in the steak.
SHORTCUT
• Make the Stilton butter ahead of time and refrigerate it for up to 1 week.
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Scotch Steak in the Coals with Stilton Butter
David’s friend Andrew Brubaker first raved to us years ago about this method of cooking steaks. He told us it was the best steak he had ever had, so we had to try it. At first, we didn’t think putting meat directly onto hot coals would work; and in the first testing, it didn’t. Our mistake was using charcoal briquettes, which have too fine an ash. The ashes stuck to the steak and made it taste like soot. But when we made the steak with lump charcoal and again with a wood fire, it worked beautifully. The steak chars quickly on the clean coals, developing a crisp crust, and there is no residual ash to speak of. The trick is to blow the ash off the coals before adding the steak. For this, you’ll need a leaf blower, a hair dryer, a portable fan, or a magazine and a strong arm. It also helps to start with a relatively ash-free grill.
THE GRILL
Charcoal:
Direct heat, red hot
12-by-12-inch lump charcoal bed (2 to 3 dozen pieces of lump charcoal, not briquettes)
No grill grate
Wood:
Direct heat, red hot
12-by-12-inch bed, 4 inches deep
No grill grate
INGREDIENTS (MAKES 4 SERVINGS)
4 boneless strip steaks, preferably Angus, each 10 to 12 ounces and about 1 inch thick
½ cup Scotch
1 tablespoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 ounces Stilton or other blue cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, softened
DIRECTIONS
1. Trim the fat on the steaks to about ¼ inch. Put the steaks and Scotch in a large freezer-weight zipper-lock bag, seal, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours, turning occasionally.
2. Remove the steaks from the Scotch and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle the salt and pepper all over the steaks, patting it in with your fingers. Let the meat sit at room temperature as you heat the grill.
3. Heat the grill as directed. Leave the grill grate off the grill so that the coals are accessible. Spread the coals to create a somewhat flat bed in the center where you will put the steaks. Blow the ashes off the coals with a leaf blower or hair dryer.
4. Grill the steaks directly on the flat bed of coals until nicely crusted, 3 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare to medium-done (135° to 140°F). Remove to plates or a platter with tongs and pick off any loose ash. Let the meat rest off the heat, loosely covered with foil, for 5 minutes.
5. Mix together the cheese and butter. Melt about a tablespoon of the Stilton butter over each steak.
Photo: Scotch Steak in the Coals with Stilton Butter
Apple-Bourbon-Brined Venison Steaks
Venison always tastes best in the fall, so we like to pair it with apples and bourbon—a classic American flavor combination. Like the meat of most game, deer meat can be fairly lean and tough, but a brine changes all that. It allows the proteins in finely