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The Steakhouse 50 · make it at home

Basque txuleta: the bone-in rib steak over embers

1 hour, plus 1 hour to come to temperature · Serves 3 to 4

The Basque asador way, from Tolosa to Hondarribia: one thick, well-marbled bone-in rib of older beef, salted with nothing but coarse salt, cooked hard over glowing coals so the outside chars and the inside stays red and warm, sliced and served on a hot plate with green peppers.

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The real one

You need

• 1 bone-in rib steak (txuleta / côte de boeuf), 2 to 2 1/2 inches (5 to 6 cm) thick, about 2 1/2 to 3 lb (1.2 to 1.4 kg), from aged, well-marbled beef
• 2 tbsp coarse sea salt (gros sel)
• For the peppers: 1 lb (450 g) small green peppers (Padrón or Gernika) or a jar of roasted piquillo peppers
• 2 tbsp good Spanish olive oil
• Flaky salt

How to make it

1. Take the steak out of the fridge 1 hour before cooking so it is cool, not cold, at the center. Do not salt it yet: the asadors salt at the grill.
2. Light a full chimney of hardwood lump charcoal (or oak). When it is covered in white ash, spread it in a single, even, thick layer and set the grill 3 to 4 inches above. You want it hot enough that you can hold your hand there for only 2 seconds.
3. Rub the steak with nothing. Scatter half the coarse salt over the top side, lay it salted side down on the grill, then salt the side now facing up.
4. Cook 6 to 8 minutes without moving it, until the underside is charred dark brown in places and the fat is crackling. Turn it once and cook 6 to 8 minutes more. Stand it on its fat edge for 2 minutes to render the cap.
5. Check the center with a thermometer: 115 to 120°F (46 to 49°C). The Basque way is red and warm inside, never cold and never pink-grey.
6. Rest 5 minutes on a board, then knock the excess coarse salt off.
7. While it rests, toss the green peppers in olive oil and blister them on the grill 3 to 4 minutes, turning, until soft and spotted; salt them well. (Or warm the piquillos in a pan with the oil.)
8. Cut the meat off the bone in one piece, slice it 1/2 inch thick across the grain, and lay the slices back around the bone on a very hot plate (a cast-iron pan heated on the grill works) so each person can sear their slices a little more if they like. Finish with flaky salt and the peppers alongside.

Tips

• Indoors: a smoking-hot cast-iron pan for 5 minutes a side, then 250°F (120°C) oven until 115°F inside.
• Older, fattier beef is the point; ask the butcher for a rib from a mature animal, aged at least 30 days.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.