Cowboy Style Steak, with a Coffee and a Spice Rub

I need an easy and quick mid week meal to rustle up for the family tonight. My days are usually long and busy and as much as I love cooking, there are moments (especially mid week for some reason!) when I need to just have a very easy meal that’s quick to pull together. I love this recipe even more so because it’s minimum preparation, speedy cooking and it’s actually the marinade that does all the hard work. I prepare this in the morning and by the time you are home from work, all you have to do is to have your griddle pan ready, or light up your barbeque and within 8-9 minutes you are ready to serve dinner!! Remember to have a look at the side dishes I have suggested, you might just need a little extra time to prepare those.

This marinade is slightly unusual, but that is why it works so well. I’ve explored so many marinades and I love this combination, particularly with a sirloin steak cut. The depth and smokiness of the coffee, the ancho chilli and the cinnamon along with the uplifting Spanish paprika just complement a very well selected cut of steak very well. The trick is to cook your steak to just medium so you just have that melt in your mouth texture, perfectly set off with this very old school, robust South American marinade.

Ingredients
Method

1 heaped tablespoon of fresh, finely ground coffee
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 Ancho Chilli, soaked in hot water , squeezed of all water and finely chopped ( If you don’t have ancho chilli, then use ½ tsp ground cayenne)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
2 tbs dark brown sugar
4 x 1 inch thick Sirloin Steak or Flank Steaks

This is a semi-dry rub, so all you need to do is combine all the ingredients and apply generously over the steaks. Place your steaks in a new, clean plastic zip lock back and chuck in the fridge until you are ready to cook these.

When you are ready to serve, heat your griddle to medium hot or, if you are barbecuing, until the coals are white. Drip some oil onto a clean kitchen towel and lightly rub the oil over the griddle or the barbeque grill.

Grill your steaks for 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare and 7 minutes on each side for medium-well.

Serve with ;

A simple salad of very fresh peppery rucola, shavings of very mature parmesan, that has a squeeze of lime over it and a seasoning of salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

For that extra heat, I always have a tube of wasabi in the fridge and I mix ¼ tsp of this with 3 tbs of mayonnaise to make a simple but totally effective Wasabi Mayonnaise. Place a generous dash of this on the side of the steak and it and let the night roll!