seared steak

with spicy garlic-miso butter & same-skillet green beans

Miso butter is a gift to us sent from the freaking heavens above. You cannot convince me that the angels don’t polish the gates with miso butter on a soft cloth. Honestly, it’s perfection on its own, but here we add garlic and cayenne because here at Cravings we strive for BETTER THAN PERFECTION, OK??? (Don’t you hate when people say that sh*t? Or when they give something an “11” on a scale of 1 to 10? Why not 12, then? Is 13 okay? Now you have me wondering why I didn’t get an 85 on a 1–10 scale just because you wanted to be dramatic.)

Something happens to you on a spiritual level when you put miso butter onto a hot steak. You feel a genuine sense of both calm and gluttony. It glistens so much that Mufasa himself appears in the juices to tell you to remember who you are. That’s a Lion King joke I had full confidence in until John told me he didn’t get it. They say good jokes don’t need to be explained, but I disagree—sometimes the listener is just painfully unaware of really important, slightly obscure animated feature-film scenes.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes (1 hour if you count the butter-freezing time)

Serves 2

ingredients

  • 1 pound boneless rib eye steak (about 1¼ inches thick), NOT trimmed of excess fat

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

  • 1 tablespoon butter

  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced

  • ¾ pound asparagus, tough bottoms snapped off (see this page), cut into 2-inch lengths OR green beans

  • 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

  • ¼ cup Spicy Garlic-Miso Butter (recipe follows), or more to taste

for the spicy garlic-miso butter (makes 1 cup)

  • 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature

  • ¼ cup white (shiro) miso

  • 3 cloves garlic, finely minced

  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  • Generous pinch of cayenne pepper

steps

MAKE THE SPICY GARLIC-MISO BUTTER:

  1. In a medium bowl, mash together the butter, miso, chives, garlic, black pepper, and cayenne.

  2. You can put the miso butter in a bowl and go to town on it. Or, if you want to be fancy and slice it into discs to put on your steaks, place a piece of plastic wrap over a piece of foil and spread the mixture into a 6 × 2-inch rectangle on the plastic. Fold the foil over the mixture and roll the foil and plastic over the mixture into a loose log. Using the ends to twist, twist the foil into handles and then keep twisting until the butter is compacted into a 4-inch-long log.

  3. Chill until ready to use: 1 hour in the freezer or 4 hours in the fridge. When ready to serve, just open the log and slice off as many butter discs as you like.

STEAK & GREEN BEANS:

  1. Heat a 9-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until screaming hot, 6 to 7 minutes. Pat the steak dry with paper towels and season both sides with the salt and pepper.

  2. Lay the steak in the pan and DFWI (remember? Don’t. F*ck. With. It.). Leave the steak alone for 5 minutes, then flip and DFWI again, another 4 to 5 minutes for medium-rare (longer if you like it more cooked, less if you like it less cooked, but you know that already). Transfer the steak to a cutting board and let it rest.

  3. Pour all but 1 tablespoon of the steak grease out of the pan and return the pan to medium heat. Add the butter, melt it (this happens fast), add the garlic, and cook it until golden, about 30 seconds. Add the green beans and chicken broth and cook, stirring once in a while, until the broth has evaporated into a glaze and the green beans is al dente, 2 to 3 minutes (or until a little more cooked—how I like it!—about 5 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Slice the steak, arrange it on a serving platter, dollop as much of the miso butter as you want on top, and serve the green beans alongside.

Recipe from/inspired by: Cravings Hungry for More by Chrissy Teigen
#western
seared steak