Two-Inch Ribeye with Brie and Roasted Red Peppers
2 inch ribeye, brie, pickled red pepper. everyone invited!
A two-inch ribeye with a slab of cheese on it. It should not work and it is one of the best things on this whole site.
The brie goes on in one thick piece with the rind left on, laid on the steak while it rests. Look at the picture — it is still square. It is not melted into a sauce, it is softening from underneath while the top holds its shape, and the rind is what holds it together. Grated cheese, or brie cut thin, just disappears.
The peppers are roasted and skinned, then left in oil and vinegar. Sweet, sharp, slippery — the acid is the only thing on the plate cutting through two inches of ribeye and a pile of soft cheese, and without it the whole thing is too much.
- Feeds
- 2
- Hands-on
- 35 minutes
- Steak
- 2 inches thick
- Peppers
- Make ahead
What you need
The steak
- 1 boneless ribeye, 2 inches thick, about 24 oz
- Coarse kosher salt, an hour ahead
- 2 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp beef tallow
- A 4 oz slab of brie, cut square, rind on, cold
The peppers
- 3 large red bell peppers
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Coarse black pepper
The rice
- 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed
- 1 tbsp butter
- A lot of coarse cracked black pepper — more than feels right
- Salt
How it goes
1 — Blacken and skin the peppers first
Whole over a flame or under the broiler until the skins are black all over, then covered in a bowl for ten minutes and the skins slipped off. Torn into wide strips, dressed with the oil, vinegar, garlic and salt. They improve for days.
2 — Salt the steak an hour ahead
A two-inch steak needs time for salt to get anywhere. An hour on a rack on the counter is the minimum; overnight uncovered in the fridge is better.
3 — Rice plain, then peppered hard
Jasmine rinsed until the water runs clear and cooked plain. Butter and a great deal of coarse black pepper stirred through at the end — that speckling in the picture is pepper, and it should be assertive enough to taste on its own.
4 — Sear it hard, then finish it low
Pepper the steak heavily. Cast iron smoking hot, tallow in, four minutes a side without moving it, fat edge held down for a minute. Then heat right down, or into a 350°F oven, until it reaches 125°F — eight to twelve more minutes for a cut this thick.
pro tip — Two inches cannot be done on heat alone. Sear for the crust, then low heat for the middle, or you get charcoal outside and cold inside.
5 — Brie on while it rests, not while it cooks
Steak onto the plate, slab of brie laid across it straight away, loosely tented. Ten minutes. The heat coming up out of the steak softens the underside of the cheese and the top stays square.
6 — Peppers piled on top
A real heap, with some of their oil, laid over the brie so it runs down the sides. Rice alongside, not underneath — the rice should stay dry.
Everyone invited. There is more brie where that came from. LFG.