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.