Espresso Glazed Steaks with a Cheesy Coffee & Butter Topping

Espresso Glazed Steak with a Cheesy Coffee Topping

I haven't cooked anything new in quite some time, mostly just sticking to what's tried and true. What I have been experimenting with, however, is coffee. Freshly ground coffee, to be precise.

Living in Bali, you can't escape the coffee culture around here. Hell, the capital island of the whole archipelago is called "Java." Indonesia, and most of Southeast Asia for that matter, is basically a coffee drinkers paradise. From the slow drip in Vietnam, to "mud coffee" and condensed milk in Sumatra, right locally harvested and roasted beans in your back yard. The coffee down here is so fresh it'll stink up a whole room before you've even taken it out of the packaging. It's downright intoxicating.

This evening I came across one of Ted Reader's (a Montreal BBQ legend) recipes titled: "Espresso Crusted" Steaks. Bam. Now that's something I have in large supply. After taking a coffee course up in Ubud at Seniman Coffee, I went out and bought myself a real coffee grinder. And this has made all the difference in my life. I used to think coffee was just coffee, and that expensive coffee always tasted better, right? Not so my friends. If you are a coffee drinker, I highly suggest you buy yourself a grinder, a french press, and some arabica beans and get to it. I'm actually at the point now where I can finally drink my coffee black, because otherwise you're just masking the taste.

Ted Reader's recipe is beautifully simple, but most importantly it uses a few new techniques I had never tried before AND ingredients I had on hand... Keep it simple!

Espresso Glaze: Now a "glaze" is very different than a "rub" or a "marinade." Think of it as a sloppy goop that you grill into the meat (as opposed to a marinade, which you should take off before grilling.) Reader also suggests you make the glaze the day before to really let the flavours set. But this was really simple and it smelled delicious.

For 2 small to medium sized steaks:

3 to 4 teaspoons of ground espresso beans (I ground them medium sized using my grinder)
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, pressed
Olive oil - just a little bit
Worcestershire sauce (this one is the key, it seems to hold all the flavours together)
Freshly cut herbs (I used oregano, basil and thyme)
Freshly ground pepper

Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add a little olive oil, just a touch at a time. Then the Worcestershire sauce last, you don't want it to get too runny. Put this in the fridge and let it sit for a day or until you're about an hour from eating. Pull out the steaks (I used Cuberoles, Reader suggests T-Bones) and glaze them 1 hour before cooking. Let them come up to room temperature before you grill.

When grilling (see my directions for making the perfect steak), throw some of the Cheesy Butter on the meat to help seal in the flavours!

Espresso Cheese Butter: This is a really simple idea but it fancies things up quite a bit, the technical term is "Steak Madeleine" (trivia question?) if you're ever in a posh restaurant. But making an herb butter for steaks is quite the finishing touch if you're trying to impress someone, *wink wink!*

1/4 cup of butter - leave it on the counter to soften
Some stinky soft cheese (Reader uses Gorgonzola, I had Blue cheese on hand)
Sprinkle of espresso powder
Splash of Coffee Liqueur

Yes, these sound strange together, but you'd be surprised. The sweetness of the liqueur is nicely offset by the pungent aroma of the cheese. And the overall saltiness of the butter holds it all together.

Stella, not being helpful.

IMPORTANT QUESTION: I was discussing dry rubs the other day with my buddy Caleb and he asked me an interesting question: his meat was very tough after using a dry rub. I asked him "how long did you leave the rub on the meat before cooking?" He replied, "a few hours?" Aha! Dry Rubs usually use coarse salt as one of their main ingredients. Salt pulls the water out of the meat, and toughens it up. You'll notice this recipe DOES NOT USE ANY SALT, because we are letting it sit for an hour before cooking. Dry Rubs should be applied immediately before grilling, so as to not give the salt too much time to react with the meat.

Please, if you have any questions or requests - write them in the comments below and I'll see what I can do! Happy Grilling!

Making the glaze

Prepping the steaks

Letting them sit for a bit after grilling

Plating, always important

And voila! Finished product.