Sugar-rubbed Steak

Tuesday night's dinner was sugar-rubbed New York strip steak with blue cheese and tomato salad.

Dinner started by popping some russet potatoes in the oven to bake. About 30 minutes later, the rub was started next by combining a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar, pepper and salt. The sugar mixture was rubbed onto both sides of a nice thick strip steak. Then the meat was seared on the first side for 5 minutes, flipped and seared for another 2 minutes on the other side. The skillet was popped into a hot oven (450 degrees) for another 8 minutes to finish cooking to medium-rare. The steak was removed from the pan, tented with foil, and allowed to rest for 5 minutes.

The salad consisted of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and crumbled blue cheese. While the steak was finishing its cooking time in the oven, the dressing for the salad was made by sauteing a strip of bacon in a skillet until crisp. Diced shallots went in for a couple of minutes and then the skillet was deglazed with red wine vinegar. Some sugar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper were whisked in. A little olive oil was stirred in and the vinaigrette was kept warm until the steak was ready.

The plate held half of the sugar-rubbed strip steak, the salad topped with the warm vinaigrette topped with some of the crumbled bacon, and a baked potato.

The steak was wonderful with the sugar-rub that caramelized as the meat was seared and cutting the steak in half made it a decent serving size. We sprinkled a little more blue cheese on the steaks which we love. The salad and potato were the perfect side dishes.