There is nothing like warm, sunny weather, to gather all the meat lovers around a hot grill with some cold drinks and good company. And this pretty much perfect scenario gets even better in the magical moment, that happens when you throw on a 60-day dry-aged ribeye steak.
However, there are a couple of details to sort out, before this beautiful steak meets the grill.
Many might argue that a high quality steak doesn’t require anything on the side, but I think a nice side dish definitely doesn’t hurt. We prepared it from young stinging nettle, that you can probably find around your house or near a creek. You can also buy it at the farmers market as we did. Your grandmother has probably told you at some point in your childhood about stinging nettle curing rheumatism and you might be surprised by our choice. Let me tell you it’s full of health benefits and affects everything from our digestion to our liver and helps detox our body.
Of course, it doesn’t just serve the purpose of health. It’s also a wonderful ingredient in the kitchen. It can be used as an herb or spice, but can also be a standalone dish.
To make our stinging nettle sauce, we blanched the leaves for a couple of seconds in boiling water. Then we immediately moved them into ice-cold water to stop the process of cooking. This way we preserve the health benefits, texture, and rich color. Next, we sliced them up thin and threw in some fresh garlic, chilly, olive oil, salt, and poured in some of the remaining cooking water. This resulted in something similar to a Triestine sauce, yet much more subtle and fresh in flavor. A great compliment to the strong and smoky flavor of the beef.
We coated the steak with olive oil and seasoned it heavily with salt and black pepper. We put it on a very hot grill to brown the sides and create and nice crust, then lower the temperature and cooked it until the desired result. In our case medium-rare.
INGREDIENTS:
- Stinging nettle
- Garlic
- Chilly pepper
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
- Ribeye steak
- Brown champignons
TIPS:
- If you let stinging nettle leaves to rest for a while, they will gradually stop stinging. When you cook them in boiling water for a short period, they will completely lose their stinging ability.
- Always let the steak rest for about an hour on room temperature, before cooking it. This will help it cook more evenly.
- When the steak is done, leave it to rest for about 10 minutes before cutting in, because the inside will continue to cook for a while and juices will spread more evenly.
