Cocoa Blackened Steak With Marcona Almond Romesco Recipes

STEAKHOUSE-STYLE BLACKENED STEAK RECIPE

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Pat the steaks dry with a paper towel.
• Brush olive oil on the filets. Sprinkle the blackened seasoning over the meat and rub in. Flip over and repeat on the other side.
• Turn on your kitchen exhaust fan. Heat a cast-iron skillet over high heat for five minutes. When the pan is hot, add butter, and when it is melted, add the filets.
• Sear the filets without moving for two minutes and turn over and sear the other side.
• Remove the skillet from the heat and place in the preheated oven. Cook the filets for four to five minutes or to 120 degrees F for rare, 125 degrees for medium-rare and 130 degrees for medium. Use an instant-read meat thermometer to ensure your steaks are cooked perfectly.
• Remove the steaks and place on a platter. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and allow them to rest for five to ten minutes. The temperature of the filets will come up approximately five degrees while they rest.
• Top with a pat of the garlic herb butter and serve immediately.

ROMESCO SAUCE WITH MARCONA ALMONDS

Steps:

• Cut the chiles in half, place in a bowl and cover with boiling water, weighing them down with a plate to keep them submerged. Set aside for 30 minutes.
• Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the almonds, hazelnuts and bread cubes and stir until they start to brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic, and stir until lightly browned. Add the piquillo peppers. Remove from heat.
• Drain the chiles, and remove stems and seeds. Chop the chiles, add them to the pan, heat and stir briefly. Add the tomato, stir and cook a minute or so until softened. Remove from heat.
• Transfer to a food processor or a blender and pulse until a rough paste is formed. With the machine running, slowly pour in the wine. Turn off the machine, add vinegar, paprika and salt, to taste, then pulse briefly to blend. The sauce will have a slightly nubbly texture.

TRI-TIP STEAK WITH TOMATO ROMESCO

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Generously season both sides of steak with salt and pepper. Put a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, add the steak to one side of the pan and tomatoes, almonds, garlic, and jalapenos, if using to the other. Sear the steak for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring the tomato mixture once or twice.
• Once a nice crust has formed on one side of steak, turn it over, carefully transfer the now-charred tomato mixture to a food processor, and put pan in oven. If tomatoes are not a bit blackened, leave them in pan and check again after a minute or two in the oven. Cook until steak is rare to medium-rare, about 6 to 12 minutes longer depending on its thickness (an instant-read thermometer will register 125 degrees F when steak is medium-rare). Transfer the steak to a plate and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
• While the steak is cooking or resting, add the vinegar and olive oil to the tomato mixture in a food processor, and season with salt, pepper and pimenton or chili powder, if using. Process the mixture, adding more olive oil or vinegar as you like, until the mixture reaches the desired consistency. Sauce should still be a little crunchy from almonds.
• Slice steak thinly, against the grain. Serve with sauce.
• Wine suggestion for this recipe: Merlot

MARCONA ALMONDS WITH SEA SALT

Steps:

• Place the almonds in a serving bowl and sprinkle with sea salt.

SMOKY ROMESCO

Steps:

• Set up your favorite smoker and add a handful of hardwood chunks. If you have heat control, set it to whatever position will give you moderate heat: 180 to 200 degrees F. Allow the wood to smoke for approximately 30 minutes before adding food.
• While the smoker is heating, position an oven rack 5-inches below the broiler and set the broiler to high.
• Halve the peppers lengthwise, discard the seeds, place cut side-down on a sheet pan, then broil, rotating the pan halfway through, until the skins are charred, about 10 minutes. (Or you can char them over your gas cooktop burners if you have them. It's a little messy but darned efficient and fun in a medieval kind of way.)
• Transfer the peppers to a large bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes, then slip the charred skins off the peppers with your hands. (Doing this under running water helps.)
• Spread the tomato paste into a thin layer on piece of parchment paper and place on a baking rack along with the peppers and garlic. Smoke for 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat a toaster oven to 400 degrees F and toast the almonds until light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Set up a food processor with an S-blade (the normal processing blade) and load in the bread cubes, smoked peppers, garlic and tomato paste, the toasted almonds, sherry vinegar and salt. Pulse until uniform but still chunky, then leave the motor running while you add the oil in a constant stream. (Do this fairly quickly so that the sauce doesn't puree completely.)
• For full flavor, wait a couple of hours to serve at room temp. To store, cover tightly and refrigerate for up 10 days or freeze in ice cube trays for easy dosing.

TRI-TIP STEAK WITH TOMATO ROMESCO

Steps:

• Heat oven to 500 degrees. Generously season both sides of steak with salt and pepper. Put a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, add steak to one side of pan and tomatoes, almonds, garlic cloves and jalapeños, if you are using them, to the other. Sear steak for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring tomato mixture once or twice.
• Once a nice crust has formed on one side of steak, turn it over, carefully transfer the now-charred tomato mixture to a food processor, and put pan in oven. (If tomatoes are not a bit blackened, leave them in pan and check again after a minute or two in oven.) Cook until steak is rare to medium-rare, about 6 to 12 minutes longer depending on its thickness (an instant-read thermometer will register 125 degrees when steak is medium-rare). Transfer steak to a plate and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
• While steak is cooking or resting, add vinegar and olive oil to tomato mixture in food processor, and season with salt, pepper and pimentón or chili powder if using. Process, adding more olive oil or vinegar as you like, until mixture reaches desired consistency. Sauce should still be a little crunchy from almonds.
• Slice steak thinly, against grain. Serve with sauce.