NY Strip Steak with Braised Carrots

I had a thawed steak in the fridge and some carrots. I guess that’s what for dinner tonight. And what a dinner this turned out to be!
It’s very simple, and the carrots and butter turned out far better than expected considering I was mostly winging it.
This particular cut is actually called a “coulotte,” which I’ve never had. My butcher told me it was similar to a New York Strip, and indeed it looks much like one and comes from the same section of the cow. Naturally I had to try it.
As for the carrots, I always buy a bunch of these multi-colored carrots when they have them. They taste just like good-ol’ “regular” carrots… because they are “regular” carrots! Colored carrots always make any dish much more appealing, in my opinion.
And then there’s the butter. I threw together some ingredients that would probably work, and wow, I could snack on the butter alone and be happy.
Prep time: 5-10 min.
Cook time: 20-30 min.
Serves: 1 (easily scale up for more servings)
Ingredients
- 1 New York Strip steak
- 4 tbsp grass-fed butter
- 1/2 small scallion
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 2 cloves garlic
- 5-6 small carrots
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
For the compound butter
- Mince the rosemary, peeled garlic, and peeled half scallion.
- In a small bowl, add these ingredients along with 3 tbsp grass-fed butter. Mash up with a fork until well combined. Set in the fridge until ready to use on the steak.
- Note: this makes a lot of butter. You can cut the quantity in half for this one steak, or save the butter for later. It’s seriously delicious. I couldn’t keep my finger out of the bowl while I was cooking. But I like butter… lots of butter… so I used it all!
For the braised carrots
- Peel the carrots and place in a pot or pan large enough for them to lay flat.
- Pour in water, 1 tbsp of butter and a little salt and pepper.
- Bring to boil then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook for about 10-15 min until soft. Watch carefully and test to make sure they don’t burn or get mushy (super soft is good, mushy is not).
- Note, the water will burn off quick, that’s ok. You can throw in a couple spoonfuls halfway through, but the heat and steam of the pot are what will make them super soft.
For the steak
- Heat oven to 250 °F with the rack in the middle.
- Regarding the steak, I trim off the fat from this cut of steak because I think it’s a little chewy. Plus, it smokes and splatters a lot when it hits the pan. The choice is yours. Don’t worry! You’ll get plenty of good fat in all that yummy butter!
- Also, NY Strip steaks can be quite large sometimes, so I cut mine in half. It’s up to you.
- Bring the steak to room temperature and pat dry. Salt and pepper both sides.
- Place on a wire rack on a baking sheet.
- Note: if you don’t have a wire rack, just set it on the baking sheet. The down side is that it will brown the bottom side a little, which we want to do later in the pan. But work with what gear you have for now.
- Put the steak in and check the temperature after about 15 min. It should read 90°F to 95°F for medium rare. 100°F to 105°F for medium. It will probably look a little gray and sad when you take it out. Don’t worry, we’re going to fully cook it in the pan next.
- Heat a skillet to a little hotter than medium.
- Get that butter out of the fridge (unless you’ve been snacking on it like I have) and put half in now (depending on your level of “butterness” that we talked about above).
- Once the pan is hot and the butter melted, put that steak in there and let it cook for about 3-5 min (depending on the size of your cut). Add the other half of the butter to the top of the steak. Let it melt on it’s own.
- Once the bottom is well seared, flip and do the same for the other side (make sure that lump of butter is under the steak.
- Cook the steak until it reaches an internal temperature of 130°F to 135°F for medium rare. 135°F to 140°F for medium. Feel free to mop up that butter with the steak as you go.
- Let it rest 5 min before you cut in to it.
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