Wasabi Steak

Wasabi-Garlic Steak

One of the folk that frequents the Kamado forum posted an interesting message about making steak with a wasabi and garlic paste.

It's worth noting that horseradish is often a traditional accent to roast prime rib of beef, so it seems like a very reasonable thing to try with steak.

Click on the small photos for larger images.

The combination of steak, wasabi (the intense Japanese horse radish, usually served with sushi) and garlic was too compelling to miss, so the following weekend, I gave it a try.

Lauren went to the butcher and brought these absolutely beautiful prime steaks home. She wasn't sure if we should use powdered wasabi or the pre-mixed version (in the tube) so she got both.

Here's the recipe that Robert Bienstock passed on to me (and thanks Robert!).

1 tablespoon wasabi powder or paste
2 or 3 large cloves garlic
Salt
1 tablespoon canola or corn oil
2 large or 4 small rib-eye steaks, 24 to 32 ounces.

1. Prepare a gas or charcoal grill or heat a large heavy skillet until it is just smoking.

2. Place wasabi powder in a small bowl, and add about 1 tablespoon cold water. Stir to dissolve, adding water if necessary to make a paste. If you are using the paste, squeeze it into a bowl. Smash and peel garlic, then sprinkle it with salt, and mince it finely. Stir into wasabi along with oil until smooth.

3. Grill the meat on one side until well browned, 4 or 5 minutes. Season the uncooked side with salt, then turn, and smear the cooked side with the paste. Cook 2 to 5 minutes longer, depending on the doneness you like, and serve.

I decided to use the premixed paste, just for convenience sake. According to Robert, the reason that the wasabi is applied to the steak after one side has been grilled is that the wasabi loses most of its potency when exposed to heat. So the paste should be added after the meat has been turned on the grill.

I wanted to experiment a bit, so I coated one piece of beef on one side with some wasabi... just to see if we could taste the difference (we couldn't, and won't do that again). Two of the pieces were coated with CharCrust rub, just in case some folk didn't like the wasabi garlic version.

The meat went on the grill, with the one wasabi coated steak, coated side up. The grill was at about 800 degrees... I didn't want to incinerate the coating.

After about 4 minutes, I removed the steaks, turned the grilled side up, and coated liberally with the paste, as shown above. The meat went back to the grill to finish cooking.

The photo above shows the two CharCrust (Roast Garlic & Peppercorn flavor) and the three wasabi garlic steaks just before serving.

Our guest brought over some nice dumplings that she had made, and I had roasted some potatoes and sweet potatoes just before cooking the meat.

The wasabi steak was a big hit. There is one thing we'll do differently next time: we'll roast the garlic first. The garlic was on the verge of overpowering the wasabi flavor, and roasting the garlic will sweeten it, making a nice counterpoint to the horseradish.

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