Cast-Iron Ribeye (crispy potatoes, asparagus)

A steakhouse dinner at home: a butter-basted ribeye, crispy russet wedges and asparagus cooked in the steak drippings.

My recipe. No grill needed: cast iron gives a better crust than most grills, and it forms fewer HCAs (see the notes).

Ingredients (2 servings)

Method

1. The night before: pat the steaks dry and salt them well on every side. Leave them uncovered on a rack in the fridge. The surface dries out so it sears instead of steaming, and the salt seasons the meat all the way through. Only salt goes on now. Ground pepper and garlic powder scorch in a smoking pan and turn bitter. The pepper goes on at the baste, and the garlic and herbs come from the butter.
2. Parboil the potatoes (about 1 hour before eating). Heat the oven to 450 °F. Put the wedges in 2 quarts of cold water with ½ tsp baking soda and 1 tbsp salt. Bring to a boil and cook 8–10 minutes, until the edges look fuzzy and a knife meets a little resistance. Drain, return them to the hot pot, and shake hard to rough up the surfaces. Spread them on a sheet pan and let them steam-dry for 3–5 minutes. The baking soda breaks down the potato's surface, so roughing them up makes a starchy crust that turns crackly in the oven. You can parboil and rough them up the day before and keep them uncovered in the fridge. That's one less job on date night.
3. Roast. Toss the potatoes with tallow and salt only, and roast 40–50 minutes, flipping once, until deep golden and crisp. Take the steaks out of the fridge when the potatoes go in. Save the spices for the end. Cajun blends, paprika and garlic or onion powder char at 450 °F long before the potatoes crisp, so they turn black and bitter and look done when they aren't. Toss the hot potatoes with the spices in a bowl as they come out. The fat on them makes the spices stick. For a toasted flavor, add the spices only for the last 5 minutes.
4. Dry the steaks and heat the pan. Pat the steaks bone-dry with paper towels, even after the dry brine. A steak that was frozen gives off extra liquid, so dry it twice. Heat the cast iron on high for at least 5 minutes, longer on a weak burner. It's ready when a drop of water skitters across it instantly. Turn on the vent fan, then add just 1 tbsp of tallow or ghee. It should shimmer and start to smoke. If the steak hisses quietly and liquid pools around it, it's steaming: the surface was wet, the pan wasn't hot enough, or there was too much fat. Lift it out, pour off the liquid, let the pan reheat for a minute and go again.
5. Render the fat cap. Hold each steak on its fat edge with tongs for about 1 minute to render some fat into the pan.
6. Sear. How you sear depends on thickness.
   • 1¼ inches or thicker: flip every minute. You get an even crust, less of a gray band under it, and fewer HCAs. Start checking the temperature at 6 minutes.
   • Under 1 inch (most supermarket ribeyes): keep the heat on maximum and flip only once or twice, about 2 minutes per side. A thin steak cooks through before frequent flipping can build a crust. Keep the baste short, about 30 seconds, and start checking the temperature after 3 minutes.
7. Baste. When they're about 10 °F from your pull temperature, turn the heat to medium. Add the butter, garlic and herbs, tilt the pan, and crack black pepper over both sides. Spoon the foaming butter over the steaks for 1–2 minutes. At medium heat the pepper toasts in the butter instead of burning. Pull at 125 °F for medium-rare.
8. Rest and do the asparagus. Rest the steaks on a board for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, put the asparagus in the same pan with the drippings and cook 3–4 minutes over medium-high, until blistered in spots. Salt it and squeeze the lemon over.
9. Serve. Slice the steak against the grain and fan it out. Pour the board juices and pan butter over it, then add a pinch of flaky salt and another crack of pepper. Or spoon chimichurri on top. To impress, slice the steak at the table on a wooden board.

Nutrition per plate

This is calculated from the same USDA data as Build a Day. Change it here:

% of the daily target for men (the same targets as Build a Day). ~ = mostly estimated. The steak is USDA's choice ribeye with the fat cap, grilled. Half the searing fat and basting butter is assumed to stay in the pan. The dry-brine salt is about ¾ tsp of kosher salt per steak, all of it counted.