Open Source: Surf and Turf :)

I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted to this blog. I feel really bad. It's kind of been on my new years resolution list that I just never get to. However stars aligned today and I got some REALLY nice dry age steak and scallops and Google+ just doesn't have enough feature to cover an instructional blog so here I am!

It's pretty cool to see that Blogspot is now Blogger and is integrated with Google+, I've been a pretty frequent Google+ user so maybe this is a good thing.

In any case, on to recipe!


Surf and Turf - Surf being pan sear sea scallops, turf being a beautiful piece of dry age ribeye. :) You'd think you can't go wrong there. Lol

this will be mostly on little tips and techniques than complex flavoring recipe, because I mostly kept it simple to preserve the nature flavor of the product here.

INGREDIENTS

1   0.83lb Dry Aged Ribeye

4   Sea Scallops

2   Strips of Bacon

1   Butchers twine or any kind of bake-able string
1   Tsb butter
Olive Oil 

Salt

Pepper

Steak Seasoning of Choice

DIRECTIONS

*Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

1. (optional) Place the cast iron pan in the oven during the preheating - this will help ensure the pan is nice and evenly hot when searing the steak. 
2. Tie the steak together gently with the butchers twine - Ribeye often has fatty pieces on the side that would curl up during searing, this will help keep it together and give it a better sear (thanks Eric for the tip!) 
3. Make sure the steak is at room temperature, then oil both side of the steak then rub it with pepper, steak seasoning, and salt liberally. - If you have time, you can presalt the steak around 1 hour ahead of time, this will   give it time to reabsorb the moisture draw out by the salt so it'll be salted from the inside while prevent steaming from the excess moisture on the surface.
4. Once the pan is hot, bring it to the stove top on high heat then drop the steak, sear about 3~4 minutes on each side.  Mmm.. enjoy the buttery meaty smell. x) - This should be medium rare for a 1 inch thick steak, if you like your steak more well done, you can finish it in the oven for 5 minutes after this step
5. Remove steak from pan and allow it to rest on a plate - Don't skip this step, this allow the steak to absorb the juices so it won't just all bleed out when you cut into it. Resist the urge to chow down right away.. I know it's hard. ;)

Pan Sear Scallops

We all know the delicious flavors of bacon wrapped scallops.. but I personally have never seen a bacon wrapped scallop with properly cooked bacon, it's always too floppy for my taste. So I thought.. how can I get the bacon wrapped scallop without the floppy bacon..? ;)

1. Remove the small side muscle from the scallops, rinse with cold water and thoroughly pat dry.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste - Scallop seems to be a little salty on its own already, so tread lightly.
3. De-glaze steak pan with ..Bacon on high heat, yes. I guess you can say it's "re-glaze" with bacon. lol 
4. Add the butter and oil to the pan on high heat. - You want to make sure the pan is smoking hot, this will ensure proper browning since scallop is full of moisture.
5. Once the fat begins to smoke, gently add the scallops, making sure they are not touching each other.
6. Sear the scallops for 1 1/2 minutes on each side. The scallops should have a 1/4-inch golden crust on each side while still being translucent in the center. 
7. Top with the crispy bacon you used to de-glaze the pan. :)

TASTING


The steak was amazing.. very tender, the fat seems to melt in your mouth, none of the chewiness that comes sometimes with ribeye, the fat in this steak was like butter, and the knife just cut straight through. Not sure if that's because of the dry aging or searing..

I always love ribeye for the fattiness and the full beefy favor. The seared crust was nice and really draws out the beefy flavor. Thanks to the resting, no bleeding when cut, but the meat itself was juicy. :)

Scallops were tasty, though I think I might've over salted a little so it was a little salty, not too bad. They were really juicy though, and I'm happy about the crust as well lol.

Hope yours comes out well! Enjoy :)