NY Steak with Murph's Rub

NY Steak with Murph’s Rub and Grilled Veggies

As you may have deduced from earlier blogs, Murph’s Kitchen serves a lot of beef and we love to grill.  Last night was one of the more impromptu evenings where the food was simply prepared and we drowned our sorrows in some mighty fine vino.  As Arizona Wildcat basketball fanatics we are still reeling from the one point overtime loss to the Huskies.  Hats off to Coach Miller and all the Cats for a great PAC 10 Season and best of luck in the NCAA Tourney!

We started off with a simple appetizer tray of olive medley, peppered soprasatta salami, sliced cucumbers, ahi tuna spread with brie and crackers and enjoyed a 2005 classic Chardonnay compliments of Johnny O.

NY Steaks

Lemon Pepper

Hot Hungarian Paprika

I began with some Prime NY Steaks, liberally coated on both sides with Lemon Pepper and then lightly dusted with Hungarian Hot Paprika.



I will post my Cajun Rub in another blog.  For unknown palettes that may not like their steaks as spicy as Murph and his clan, we just lightly dust with the Paprika to kick it up a notch.  The steaks should be seasoned several hours prior to serving and allowed to come to room temperature.  I hold them in a room temp oven to prevent the cats from their own version of a steak tasting.

Seasoned Veggies

Red, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers

One Big Sweet Onion--- I prefer Walla Walla’s in season

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Garlic Salt

Quarter Bell Peppers and remove stem and seeds.  Peel the Onion and cut in half across the equator.  I prefer to skewer the onions with a long stainless steel skewers.  Place all veggies in a large mixing bowl and hang the onions on top.  Drench in  olive oil and get the veggies well coated on all sides.  I do a light dusting of the garlic salt and then sprinkle on a modest amount of kosher salt as well.  Finally, use lots of fresh ground black pepper and let the veggies sit out for at least an hour so they are room temp as well.

I always cook my veggies first and hold them in a warm over while I do the steaks.  Put the onions on firs over medium hot grill.  For those of you who may be using a Weber you might want to move them toward the outside of the hottest part of your grill.  Be careful as olive oil can really flame up.  Flame is your enemy with grilled veggies as it blackens them.  It may take you a time or two on your own grill to find the sweet spot that gets the veggies cooked but not blackened.  Turn the onions after about 3-5 minutes and move them to the top rack of your grill when you put on the Bell Peppers.  I tend to dip the veggies back into my mixing bowl rather than brushing with oil but either way will work.  It takes aobut 10-15 minutes depending on how many veggies you are grilling.  At this point grill them until almost done because they will soften up in the oven a bit and I don’t like my veggies mushy.  This same technique works with virtually any crisp veggie and we frequently do this with eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms etc.. 

NY Steaks

I like to cook steak on the hottest part of a very hot grill with the lid only partially down after the steaks go on. I bring them out to the grill on a cookie sheet and I’m a” turn so they have the restaurant diamonds on them sort of guy.”  Obviously, the more “well done” steaks go on first and the “rare” ones go on last.  Regardless of intended doneness make sure you sear them for at least two minutes on the first turn.  Flip ‘em at about two and give them two on the opposite side.  Now it’s up to you to use your grilling skills to create the perfect medium rare etc.  These steaks were full of marbling and took about 8 minutes for medium rare. 

We served the steaks with a nice salad, the grilled veggies and proceeded fill the void created by the Arizona loss with some great wine and had a great dinner on our patio.  Thanks to Johnny O and the Courtney’s for bringing fantastic wines.

As a side note, we attended the A to Z wine dinner the night before at Jannos Restaurant and I fell in love with their Pinot Noir.  I promptly cleaned AJ’s out of their remaining stock on Saturday morning.  I can’t tell you how great this Pinot was for under $20.  Run to your favorite wine shop and buy every bottle they have, you won’t regret it!