The Missing Link
This amazing piece of meat was given to me by a dear friend and coworker Link, hence the post name. This beast was purchased from Barons Meats in Alameda, CA and was on my desk by 10:00am. I spent the rest of the day thinking about how I wanted to prepare this monster and my daily responsibilities suffered because of this. I regret nothing.
If you haven't treated yourself to a high quality piece of meat yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. There is such an amazing difference in quality, texture and flavor. It's definitely on the pricey side, but once you bite into it, you'll see why. The main word you're looking for is USDA Prime or Wagyu. Now you won't be able to find these types of meat in your standard supermarket, so what you're looking for here is a dedicated butcher. A true butcher shop that specializes in nothing but meats. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find quality butchers in some parts of the country. When you do find one, it's worth developing a relationship with them. Hopefully you'll get the best cuts and the good butchers will go above and beyond if you show them that you care about their craft as much as they do. Plus, these guys usually have access to higher quality meat that they may not be buying because the demand is so low. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it's not a possibility.
Ingredients
- Large bone-in ribeye, roughly 3" thick. In a restaurant, this would be a steak for two.
- 3 diver scallops
- 1lbs Maitake Mushrooms
- Kosher Salt
- Canola Oil
- Onion Powder
- Sel Gris or Fleur De Sel
- 2 tbsp Clarified Butter
- 2tbsp Butter at room temp
- Sherry Vinegar
- A few sprigs of Thyme
- 3 or 4 garlic cloves, smashed
Cookware
- 12" Cast Iron Skillet
- 7" Fry Pan
- Quarter Sheet pan
- Quarter Sheet rack
- Spoon for basting
- Oven safe platter for serving
Short and Sweet Instructions
- Roast the seasoned mushrooms
- Heat the cast iron in the oven at the same time
- Rub steak with a light coating of oil and season
- Sear steak on stove and finish in oven
- Sear scallops while steak is resting
- Reheat veg in the oven while you baste the steak
- Butter / herb baste steak in hot pan while veg is in oven
- Plate and serve
Prep
Steak: Let the steak rest at room temp for at least one hour before cooking.
Mushrooms: break down the Maitakes into clumps. Trim off the root end of the cluster.
Scallops: Remove the adductor muscles. Keep cold in fridge.
Cooking Instructions
Mushrooms
- Toss mushrooms with canola oil, kosher salt and onion powder
- Place on a foil lined quarter sheet pan and roast in a 400º oven for 15 minutes
- Set aside
Steak
- While the mushrooms are cooking, I like to keep my cast iron pan in the oven so it gets heated evenly
- When you're ready to cook, start heating the cast iron pan over high heat.
- Rub the steak with a small amount of canola oil. This will be the only lubricant used while cooking the steak. I don't use any extra oil in the pan because it's going to start smoking immediately.
- Season liberally with Kosher salt only
- Once the pan is rocket hot, place the steak in the pan, and gently press it down so it all comes into contact with the cooking surface.
- Sear over high heat for 1-2 minutes or until you've developed a nice brown crust.
- Flip the steak and repeat.
- We're cooking for color here, so don't worry about the interior. All we're going for here is a nicely caramelized exterior.
- After the second side is seared, remove it from the pan and place it on a foil-lined quarter sheet rack and place it in the 400º oven.
- The cooking time here will vary greatly depending on the thickness of the meat. I ended up cooking my steak at 2 different temperatures. I started it at 400º for 20 minutes. That got my interior temperature to just about 100ºF. I bumped the heat up to 425º and roasted it for another 12 minutes which got it up to 134º. It probably went up a few degrees while it rested, so the steak ended up a perfect medium doneness. Again, your times will vary, so just keep track of the temperature with a thermometer and you'll be fine.
- Once your steak is cooked, pull it out of the oven and let it rest for at least 10-15 minutes. A steak of this size should be treated more like a roast, so give it ample time to rest.
- Just before serving, we're going to use the butter, thyme and garlic as a baste to add flavor and bring the steak back up to temperature to serve. If your steak cools down too much or sits for too long, you may want to pop it back in the oven for a few minutes to aide in the warming process.
Scallops
- While your steak is resting, you can cook your scallops.
- Heat a small fry pan over medium heat and add the clarified butter
- Heat until just smoking
- While the pan is heating, lightly season the scallops with kosher salt
- When the pan is heated, add your scallops to the pan and sear until golden brown. Roughly 3 to 3.5 minutes.
- Flip the scallops and repeat for the other side. It'll take less time to cook on the second side, so keep that in mind. Roughly 1.5 to 2 minutes.
- Remove the scallops from the pan and place on a c-fold or normal paper towel
Finishing
Mushrooms
- Place the mushrooms back in the oven to reheat.
Scallops
- If the scallops have cooled down, you can place them back into the oven to reheat. They should heat pretty quickly so make sure the oven is just warming them and not cooking them.
Steak
- In your cast iron, add butter over medium high heat
- When the butter starts to bubble and sizzle, add the thyme and garlic.
- Take your steak and put it at the top third of the pan
- Using a spoon, put the thyme and garlic on top of the steak.
- Carefully tilt the pan back so the end with the steak lifts off the stove
- Spoon the hot butter over the steak repeatedly. The butter should be hot and foaming as it bathes the steak.
- Keep doing this until the steak is rewarmed, about 1-2 minutes
- Transfer back to the rack or onto your carving board
Plating
- You're going to remove the steak from the bone on your carving board
- If you want to keep the board clean, put down a layer of wax paper and a couple paper towels over that.
- Place your steak on the board
- Cut around the top of the steak to remove the Cap and set aside
- Using your knife, run the blade along the rib bone to separate the eye of the beef from the bone
- Trim off any excess fat
- Slice the meat perpendicular to where the bone was. You want nice thick slices here so the steak doesn't get cold. Somewhere in the 3/4" range per slice.
- Arrange the meat on a warm platter
- Sprinkle with Sel Gris or desired Finishing Salt
