One of the really cool things about partnering with the Certified Angus Beef® Brand (aside from already loving their great beef) is that every now and then I get surprises in the mail. This Summer they sent me a copy of Perfectly Aged - 40 Years of Recipes and Stories from A Taste of Texas.
A Taste of Texas is a Houston landmark steakhouse that has been serving only Certified Angus Beef® Brand for over three decades. This book features everything that makes a good cookbook.
- The history of this storied restaurant and Texas itself.
- Mouthwatering recipes (over 100 of them!) from classics like Prime Rib to the inventive, such as; Seared Tuna "Nachos" with Chimichurri Sauce and Fried Capers.
- Photos that make your taste buds dance.
- Sections that focus on teaching technique like Steak School.
We used their garlic butter recipe as the perfect accent for this reverse pan-seared t-bone steak.
The one slight change we made to their recipe was a substantial one - we upgraded garlic to fire roasted garlic.
Fire roasting garlic is easy. Set your grill up for indirect heat at 350°f degrees. For me, I used a small kamado grill so indirect meant using a plate setter or heat diffusing stone between the fire and your food. For a regular grill just shift the coals to one side and cook, lid closed, with the food over the gap or void.
Just cut off the top quarter of each bulb of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves. Drizzle them with cooking oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the garlic until browned and some of the cloves are starting to squeeze up out of the bulb - about 1 hour. Take that off the grill and squeeze out the delicious pulp from the heads of garlic. You can save that pulp, refrigerated, for 2 weeks and use it in anything instead of regular garlic. The stuff is amazing.
Now about that steak. It was labeled as a T-bone, but the filet portion was significant enough that it would qualify as a porterhouse steak. I seasoned it with our NMT Umami Steak Seasoning and then let it rest on a rack for over an hour. This enables the seasoning to be drawn back into the steak and lets the steak temper for even cooking.
To cook the steak, I used a reverse pan-sear method. That just means I slow roasted it and then seared it in a scorching hot pan to finish it.
I cleaned out a kamado, loaded the Kick Ash Basket with Tennessee hardwood lump charcoal, lit it using a gas torch, and preheated the grill to a cooking temp of 250°f.
I cheated a little. I used a cast iron skillet as the indirect heat shield between the steak and the fire. This accomplished two things:
- It made it easier to switch to direct heat at the end because I didn't have to lift out grates and remove a plate setter or heat stone.
- It preheated the skillet that I would use to sear the steak.
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| I put the temp probe in the center of the NY Strip side of the t-bone and set a target temp of 125°f. This raised rack was directly above the skillet, so it blocked the direct heat from the fire, but not as much as a usual heat deflector. |
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| You can see on the ChefAlarm that it took just over 40 minutes for the steak to hit an internal temp of 125°f. |
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| I let the steak rest until the carryover cooking raised the steak temp where it peaked out at 128°f and then started to fall. That just makes sure that when you are searing the steak, it won't cook any further. |
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| While the steak rested, I opened up the lower vent and brought the cooking temp up to 500°f. I added a heaping tablespoon of beef tallow and seared the T-bone steak about 1 minute per side to get a tasty crust. |
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| Perfect crust! |
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| I sliced the T-bone steakhouse style, big T-bones and porterhouses are made for sharing. |
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| I finished the steak with a fine dusting of our steak seasoning and pouring the roasted garlic butter over the slices. |
This steak was absolutely divine, we loved every bite of it. Perfectly Aged is one heck of a cookbook, breaming with fantastic content. I can't wait to try the Asiago Rolls, Tracey Hassett's Crab Cakes, or Here Lies The Chicken Fried Steak.
It is a hardcover book that is beautifully composed, and it would be a great Christmas gift for that griller or cook in your family. They didn't ask us to promote this book at all, I just like it a good bit and think it makes a great present.
