Rib Steak

It was my birthday last night, and we made rib steaks.

Oh yeah.

There isn't too much to rib steak. It's a pretty delicious cut of meat. Since I don't have a grill, I used a cast iron skillet and an oven. You get the skillet real hot over high heat (takes a couple minutes, because the iron is so thick), add a little canola oil to coat the bottom, and put in your steaks (sizzle sizzle). Wait about 1 minute and flip the steaks. Wait another minute or 2 and then put the skillet into a 400 degree oven (use mitts!). Wait another 7 minutes or so, and your steak is perfect. Just take it out, let it rest and it's good to go.

This time, I did something different. I usually avoid flavoring rib steaks with anything other than salt and pepper. But this time I decided to do the opposite - and go all-out Bobby Flay. By which I mean mix together every single spice I own (seriously, look at any of Bobby Flay's rubs or bbq sauces, and you'll see that is his basic strategy).

Ok, not every spice. Spices come in categories. You have your sweet baking spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves and cardamom. And you have herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, tarragon, etc. And then you have the savory spices - garlic and onion, chili powders of all forms (which includes paprika, "chili powder", cayenne pepper, and many others), black pepper, cumin, coriander, and mustard powder.

(There are more, but the above is what I have in my pantry).

The Flay method generally consists of mixing together every single savory spice and throwing in a sweet baking spice, usually ginger. I left out the ginger this time, but I threw together all of the above mentioned savory spices, plus salt. And I rubbed it all over my steaks just prior to tossing them in the skillet.

I also made a "steak sauce" by tossing chopped onions and more of the aforementioned spices into the skillet after I took the steaks out. I also added some oregano, which I didn't put on the steak. Then, I added in two forms of acid - vinegar and wine. I started with some ancho chili sauce, which is vinegar based, and added in a little regular wine vinegar. Then I added in enough red wine to sort of coat the skillet, and let the whole thing cook down a bit. It was fanstastic.

I also made some spicy potatoes by dicing potatoes and onions and frying them with more of the spices above. I didn't tend the skillet well and the bottom of the hash burned terribly. But it was still pretty good. Potatoes fried with onions and savory spices tend to be.