Côte De Boeuf

Options for the Côte De Boeuf are to either grill it or cook it in the oven.

To grill: first off, take your time! Allow yourself 70-90 minutes for this to temper. Your objective is to bring the interior of the steak to 120°F slowly, and without imparting any colour on the exterior. Carrying over cooking will bring the interior to 130°-135°F, perfectly medium-rare.

Pat the steak dry with a paper towel and season with a generous amount of kosher salt and pepper. It needs nothing else. Save that special rub for the next time you tackle a brisket.

Set up a dual temperature zone on your grill, which means firing up one side of your grill to a relatively high heat and setting the other to the lowest temperature you can manage, or off completely. If you have three zones, leave the middle one off completely and place the steak on that part of the grill.

Place the steak in the cool zone. Close the lid. The heat from the hot zone will flow over the top and warm your steak via convection. Pay attention to the temperature under the lid. If the ambient temperature rises above 275°F, open the lid and let heat escape. Don’t worry, this stopping and starting will not hurt the steak at all.

Once the steak comes to 120°F (use a thermometer), remove it from the heat and set aside.

Close the lid and crank the grill as high as it goes. Give it a couple minutes to heat up.

Open the lid and put the steak on the hottest part of the grill. Keep the lid open while you do this.

Sear the steak for about one minute on each side, or until the exterior has a nice golden brown caramelised crust. Don’t get hung up trying for perfect grill marks, your objective is an all over deep golden-brown crust.

Remove the steak and set aside for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving. Resting the steak is crucial. Resting makes for a juicer, more tender, steak.

To serve: slice against the grain of the meat and arrange on a service platter or warm cast iron pan. Arrange the sliced discs of the Maître D’hôtel compound butter on top, and finish with a good sprinkle of Maldon salt.

To cook in the oven: not having a backyard grill should not deter you. It’s actually easier to reverse sear meat using your oven. First off, take your time! Allow yourself 70-90 minutes for this to temper. Your objective is to bring the interior of the steak to 120°F slowly, and without imparting any colour on the exterior. Carry over cooking will bring the interior to 130°-135°F, perfectly medium-rare.

Set your oven to 225°F degrees, or the lowest it can go.

Pat the steak dry with a paper towel and season with a generous amount of kosher salt and pepper. It needs nothing else. Save that special rub for the next time you make your famous ribs.

Place the steak on a cooling rack on top of a baking sheet. If you have a remote meat thermometer, insert it in the middle of the steak sideways.

Cook until reaching an interior temperature of 120°F, then remove from the oven.

Set aside, while you heat up a cast iron pan until it is seriously hot. Once hot, add a couple tablespoons of an oil with a high ‘smoke point’: grapeseed, vegetable, canola, sunflower, peanut. The oil will heat up almost immediately.

Lay the steak in the pan and sear the vegetable oil in a cast iron pan at high to medium high heat. Sear the steak for about a minute on each side, or until the exterior has a nice golden brown caramelized crust. There will be smoke in your kitchen! Make sure your vent is on high, and maybe open a window.

Rest your steak for at least 10 minutes before carving and serving, to ensure it is extra juicy and tender.

For the Maître D’hôtel butter: pull the salted butter from the fridge and place on the counter to soften. This could be done overnight or at least 3 hours before making the recipe.

Place the finely chopped shallots and the red wine vinegar into a heavy bottom sauce pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn the heat to low and let cook until the shallot start to look dry and purple, and most of the vinegar has evaporated.

Place into a bowl and allow the shallots to cool to room temperature.

Using a stand mixer, place all ingredients into the bowl, add paddle attachment and whip the butter until all ingredients are well incorporated and looks homogenous. Taste and add a pinch of kosher salt if needed. If you don’t have a stand mixer on hand, this process can be done by hand using a large bowl and spatula.

Place a good amount of film wrap on a clean kitchen counter, add a half of the compound butter in the centre of the film wrap and pull the overlapping film wrap over the centre, covering the butter like a blanket. Pull the film wrap back with both hands using mostly the bottom of your hand and pinkies. This will form a small log, repeat if necessary and make sure the log of butter is evenly divided.

Now take both ends of the film wrap and twist the wrap on both ends and roll the log forward until the butter firms up into a cylinder-shaped log.

Place the logs in the fridge and allow the butter to set for at least 3 hours or more before using.

The butter holds up to 2 weeks in the fridge and can be frozen as well for longer storage.

Remove the plastic wrap carefully to make sure there is no plastic left behind in the butter.

Cut the log into ¼ inch medallions and place on top of your steak.

To assemble: slice against the grain of the meat and arrange on a service platter or warm cast iron pan.

Arrange the sliced discs of the Maître D’hôtel compound butter on top, and finish with a good sprinkle of Maldon salt.