This Recipe is part of the Intimate Dinner Al Fresco Big Sur Menu
Grilled meat is very American, and grilling over a wood fire is very Big Sur Bakery—it’s one of our favorite ways to prepare food. We consider ourselves to be a meat-and-potatoes restaurant because steak and potatoes never go out of style, and a good steak can satisfy the soul. Since fat means flavor, our prime rib steak has a silken outside layer on it and a marbling of fat throughout the meat. Our steaks come from the rib or the loin section and are always dry-aged. Be sure to buy your meat from a reputable source and go for the dry aging—it makes a real difference in the flavor.
Ingredients
4 boneless steaks cut from prime rib, about 10 ounces each
2 tablespoons black peppercorns base
1/4 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
Kosher salt
Red Wine Sauce
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon rice bran oil or canola oil
1 shallot, sliced
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup red wine, preferably the kind you’ll be drinking with dinner
2 cups beef broth
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. Make the red wine sauce first. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and shallots and sauté until they’re caramelized, about 7 minutes. Add the flour, mix it with the shallots and butter, and cook for 2 minutes. Then deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of the red wine, scraping any brown bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Pour in the rest of the wine and whisk to help dissolve the flour. Add the beef broth, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and reduce, skimming the surface with a spoon or a ladle every once in a while to remove the foam that forms on the top, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 30 minutes. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, and discard the shallots. Return the sauce to the pan. Check the seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Keep warm over very low heat until ready to serve.
2. Remove the steaks from the refrigerator, arrange them on a plate, and allow them to come to room temperature, 15 to 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, preheat your grill, burning the wood down until you have a red-hot coal Crack the peppercorns by placing them on a flat surface, like a cutting board, and pressing them with the flat bottom of a heavy pan until they split into pieces.
4. Season the steaks on both sides with the cracked pepper, the parsley, and salt to taste. Place them on the grill and leave them alone, giving the outside ample time to caramelize. When you can see that the meat has distinct grill marks, flip the steaks over and cook to your desired doneness—we recommend rare to medium-rare.
5. Remove the steaks from the grill, and let the meat rest for 3 minutes. Then serve, with the red wine sauce on the side.
Serves 4
Thought that was sweet? You’ll enjoy:
Recipe excerpted from The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook by Michelle Wojtowicz. Published by HarperCollins. Copyright 2009 by Michelle Wojtowicz. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Buy the book now!