Coffee-Chili Rubbed Steak

Last night I knew I needed to make a super quick dinner. I got home a little late and we were going to see some standup at Littlefield (awesome show almost every Monday). It was sold out last night because Wyatt Cenac was going to be there, so I definitely wanted to make sure I got out of the house on time. The show ended up being amazing – and Aziz Ansari showed up randomly to do a set. I basically laughed my ass off for two hours. And to top it off, for the first time there ever I managed to resist the allure of combining booze and comedy.

Anyway – tangent about my awesome night full of laughter and self-control aside – dinner needed to be quick. I planned on making steak with my trusty Montreal Steak Seasoning, but lo and behold there is sunflower oil in it. This is seriously upsetting. So instead I decided to make an espresso-chili rub which turned out amazing.

Now every other time I have made a rub (or really any food) with coffee I have also included brown sugar to cut some of the bitterness. A quick googling of espresso rubbed steaks told me that this was the norm. Totally sold on the idea of the espresso-chilli rub, I improvised with some paleo approved spices to up the sweetness factor without sugar. A little cocoa powder, anise seed, and ginger balanced the bitterness of the coffee. I also added some coriander to round out the flavors a bit. Finally, I seared the steak in coconut oil to add another touch of mellow sweetness.

This all worked perfectly and was as good as any other espresso rub I’ve ever had.

Coffee-Chili rubbed steak with buttered broccoli

Ingredients

1/3 cup ground coffee beans

1/4 cup chili powder

2 tablespoons unsweetened coco powder

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon anise seed

1/2 tablespoon coriander

1 steak

coconut oil for cooking

1) Mix all ingredients besides steak and coconut oil together. This should give you enough for steak now, and some to save for later
2) Coat one side of your steak liberally with coffee rub, press in with your fingers and let sit for 10 minutes.
3) Cook steak in skillet or cast iron pan starting with rubbed side down until desired doneness - medium rare to rare for me! Eat! Go do something fun because dinner took you like 10 minutes to cook!