Most people have had blackened red fish, most likely 15 to 20 years ago when it was all the rage. It was so popular in restaurants across the country that the fish became protected from overfishing thus leaving a whole in the appetites of Cajun food lovers everywhere. No problem, we started to blacken everything else. You can use this same blackening recipe for preparing blackened chicken breast sandwiches, or blacken red fish which has made a comeback as of late. But today we are going to blacken my favorite cut of beef, the rib-eye. Whenever I serve these people beg for the recipe so here it is. Make sure to use a cast iron skillet. It is mandatory for this recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 rib-eye steaks
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
For the seasoning mix
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried sweet basil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons Spanish paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
PREPARATION:
1. Mix the blackening seasoning ingredients together. Coat rib-eyes on both sides with a liberal amount of the mixture and allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes
2. In an iron skillet, (no substitute) heat the butter and Worcestershire sauce over medium high to high heat. Careful not to butn the butter but maintain a very hot skillet by remove from heat and returning until the butter just starts to smoke. Add the steaks and lower heat to medium high still minding to not burn the butter. Brown is OK but burnt is not. Cook for about 5 minutes per side for medium rare.
Again you will need to constantly tend to the skillets heat level during the cooking process as you want to achieve a blackened (mildly charred) crust with a medium rare center.
Remove steaks from skillet and let stand on a warm plate for 5 minutes before serving. You can drizzle some of the butter from the skillet over them just before serving.
Serves 2
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I’ve used a very similar recipe, with great results. I would add only two comments:
a) I like the idea of adding worcestershire with the butter; agreed that oil is the wrong way to go. If perfecting the butter is too much hassle, I’d tell folks to either melt it just before putting on the steaks or do what is done with fish: coat the steak with melted butter before applying the spice mix.
b) By my experience, there are few household burners that get hot enough (the bottom of the cast-iron skillet should be white ash). So I’ve taken to using a large propane burner (commonly called a turkey-fryer). Although you must be sufficiently careful of not burning down your house, it makes for one hot skillet — and a great end result.
Great idea to put the skillet on a propane burner!
This looks very very good!!!!