Extreme Grilling, Alaska Style

Between the last week of rehearsals for Love, Loss and What I Wore and traveling to Seattle for a deposition, it's been a busy last five days.  It's also been a very snowy last week, as snow storms have been buffeting Alaska.  Everything looks very white and clean, but Seattle's fifty degrees yesterday felt heavenly.  However, I made the mistake of wearing the same knee-length dress I'd worn for the deposition on the flight home.  I emerged into zero-degree weather and immediately regretted that choice.

David and I have a very basic Weber grill that sits out on our back porch.  It's not a very advanced grill and we're not very advanced grillers.  It might have occurred to us to pull it into our garage and have some sort of shelter over it when winter hit, but what can I say?  It didn't.  The result is that the snow is as high as the grill, and that's without the additional snow on Saturday night:

Before I headed out of town, I made another run at steak with a porcini mushroom slather.  I tried a wet rub last October containing the porcini mushroom powder I bought on a whim from the local spice store;  it mostly didn't work.  This time around I tried a dry rub and the result was a kick-ass steak.

Since it was just for David and I, I used a one-pound ribeye on the bone that we sliced and shared.  For more than two, you might want to consider boned, smaller ribeye steaks.

Porcini-Crusted Ribeye Steak
Inspired by Flavors from The Mozza Cookbook by Nancy Silverton

1 lb. bone-in ribeye steak

3 tb. porcini powder

1 tb. granulated sugar

2 peperoncini peppers

1/4 tsp. truffle or kosher salt

Pinch fresh-ground pepper and salt
Good-quality extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar for garnish

You can buy porcini powder ready-made;  here is one source.  Otherwise, grind dried porcini mushrooms to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle or a mini-prep food processor.

Combine the porcini powder, sugar and salt in a small bowl.  Crush the peperoncini peppers into fine bits and add them to the mixture;  stir to combine.

Completely coat the ribeye in porcini powder and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the steak for at least half an hour.

When the grill is started, pull the steak out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.  Pat any remaining porcini mixture onto it.

Season with a bit of additional salt and pepper just before the steak goes on the grill.  Cook for approximately eight minutes on each side, or until a meat thermometer reaches 125 degrees.  This will make for a rare steak;  cook longer for the desired degree of doneness.

Drizzle the plate with good-quality olive oil and then splash the steak with good balsamic vinegar.

I served this with roasted, cubed potatoes and roasted zucchini.  Delicious with an earthy red wine such as an Oregon pinot noir or a Chataneuf-du-Pape.