Recipe Coffee and Chili Rubbed Steak with Savoury Chocolate Sauce. Can you imagine coffee and chocolate flavour paired with beef steak ? sounds odd, but i guess you should try it first then made your own verdict. This post is the answer for the challenge from one of my fellow colleagues. She ask me to made a delicious steak with a US choice a.k.a cheap steak eversince she only know that most of my beef steak recipe made of US Prime Beef or Japanese Wagyu Beef. Well, actually i already made dry aging tenderloin from a local beef and cook it into Dry Aged Tenderloin Steak with Spicy Blue Cheese, Chili, Basil and Caramelized Onion Butter. Eversince she’s favourite cut of beef is ribeye, i made this recipe with it.
The coffee rubbed steak didn’t taste bitter at all, that’s for damn sure ! Since it was my first hesitation once i read my fellow friend post Coffee Crusted Steak Recipe, i guess i’ll probably regret if i didn’t gi it a shoots then. The acid content on the coffee works as a natural tenderizer for the steak, it also infused a pleasant coffee aromas and tangy flavour into it. To accompany my chili and coffee rubbed ribeye steak, i paired it with savoury chocolate sauce.

Recipe Perfectly Seared Coffee and Chili Crusted Fridge Dry Aged Beef Ribeye, No One Recognize It’s From Cheap Piece of Steak!
The perfect ribeye steak must be fullfilled my check list. The texture of perfect steak must be tender and bounchy with slighy chewy once you had your first bite. The meat must be moist and juicy on the inside while the outside of the beef charred and seared to lock out the beef juice. The perfect medium rare steak got a deep red color and the grey area is less than 3 mm from the edge. Perfecly medium rare steak just cooked until the marbled fat within the flesh renderred and melted in the mouth. The perfect beef steak must have intense and deep beefy flavour too, can i had this all perfect steak requirements from the supermarket cheap individual steak ?
The real question is can i made the perfect ribeye steak with a regular or cheap US choice cut of steak. Now the pressure point, my friend is quite a cheap lady, but she wanted something taste fancy on her plate without paying quite an effort and cost for it. Well, i guess my refrigerator dry aging is the answer to had a delicious steak from a cheap ribeye steak. Unfortunately, my previously Dry Aging Beef Tenderloin in The Home Refrigerator recipe takes 14 days to change a relatively cheap local beef tenderloin into a prime steak house quality tenderloin steak taste a like. Commercially dry beef aging is the whole cut of beef placed in a controlling enviroment in 1– 4°C (33 – 39°F) temperature, and 80–85% relative humidity and some air velocity. It works with my cheap whole tenderloin beef, but would it works with individual steak cut regular ribeye? Can i dry aging individual steak cut in my fridge ? Seriouseats say No, but i said YES!!! i tried it myself. The princip of this home refrigerator dry aging individual steak is to let some moistures evaporated from the steak for consentrate the flavour without completely drying it off and let the microbial organism and natural enzyms works jut enought to break down the meat collagen and tenderize the beef without further rotten it.
How to dry aging the individual steak (about 1-2 inches thickness with 300-500 grams weight beef steak) in the fridge is done by placing the unwrapped sliced steak above metal wire rack and left it undisturbed for commonly 2 days in the ideal fridge temperature (about 1– 4°C or 33 – 39°F) and the fridge humidity in “dry mode”. Unfortunately this procedure didn”t change much of the beef flavour and the texture instead slighly drying and consentrate the beef flavour. Simply by adjusting the refrigerator temperature from ideal to 6-10°C (42 – 50°F) by rotate the temperature console in the refrigerator until without changing the humidity setting.
This temperature allow the decomposition microbial bacteria and fungi and also the natural enzymes works better. To make sure the air circulating well surround the beef, i let it sit in the middle fridge rack for itself. To observed your refrigerator temperature is ight, put digital thermometer and abandoned it 50 minutes inside the fridge (just where you place your beef) then adjust the console until your ideal 8°C termperature is reached. Never set higher temperature than 10°C because the beef will be spoilage due to excessive microbial growth. The beef collagen break down process by the friendly microbial organism ideally take only 2-3 day , at this period some of the steak cut beef ribeye moisture evaporated and made the flavour consentrated while the collagen is break down but not yet spoilaged.
This is how individual ribeye steak look a like after dry aged 3 days in the home refrigerator in about 6-10°C (42 – 50°F) temperature with a relatively dry humidity. The fridge dry aged ribeye steak outer layer turn into waxy and firmer texture when you touch it. The dry aged beef got a dark red color. Strong beefy aromas comes from the dry aged beef once you smells it. No need to trimmed off the waxy outer layer layer, because it’s quite thin and yet still edible without any slime, mold or bizzare smells on it’s surface, so i can tell you this steak is still good to eat.
I even try to prolonged dry aged another individual steak in the 6-10°C (42 – 50°F) fridge for 4 and 5 days and it turn into a bizzare and unpleasing smells once it cooked even there’s no trace of mold on it. Prolonged periode (more than 5 days) of dry aging using individual steak cut beef made the steak outer layer unedible thought and dry, unless the microbial organisms rotten and molded the steak, the remaining edible meat is too thin after the unedible layer trimmed off.
The coffee and chili crusted seasoning for the beef steak made of ground coffee, smoked paprika powder, dry chili flakes, freshly ground black peppercorn and Homemade Garam Masala Powder. I also add some brown sugar and salt on the coffee rub mixture to season and marinade the beef steak for at least 45 minutes prior to cooking. I’m using genuine Indonesian civet cofee for this steak recipe, it has very pleasant tangy fruity body and it goes well to seasoned my Grilled Pork Belly with Coffee Glaze Recipe. The chili flakes, garam masala, black peppercorn and smoked paprika made complex flavour of spicy, coffee, peppery, hot and smokey for the beef steak.
The ribeye steak rubbed goodly with the civet coffee powder, chili flakes, smoked paprika powder, brown sugar and salt mixture and then drizzled with olive oil. The dry aged ribeye steak then left in the room temperature for at least 45 minutes prior to cooking. The salt driven out the moisture from the beef and made the salt dissolved and infused the dripping with the coffee crust mixture. The dripping then penetrated again into the meat after 1 hours marinated. The osmosis process infused the tangy civet coffee flavour, spicy chili, garam masala and black peppercorn alongside with smokey paprika powder, just perfect to seasoned my dry aged ribeye steak.
How to perfectly seared the ribeye steak util the steak outer layer charred and middle cooked it into medium rare. I like to use Heston Blumenthal method, but i guess the the coffee and chilli rubs gonna be burned in seconds, so i wipe out the marinade a little bit. After i heat the cast iron frypan until sizzling hot, i mean very-very hot until it freakingly mad smoking. Never forget to turn off your smoke alarm before you cooking the steak and luckily i don’t have one. You can use your stopwatch for countdown, but i’m using my mind as i used to be countdown the time for composite dental filling light cure. I put the steak on the pan and allow it to cook for 15 seconds then turn it over every 15 seconds until the middle temperature reach 130 to 135 F. (55 to 57 C.)
The recipe of savoury chocolate sauce for beef steak is quite simple too. First you should know that dark chocolate is more preferred because milk chocolate or over-swetened chocolate turn into funny taste sauce. I’m using 70 percent cocoa dark chocolate block (Gourmet chocolate, yes this is pricey! just don’t let my friend know about it). To add the savoury taste to the bitter sweet dark chocolate, i add salted butter and finely chopped bacon for it. Beside, some caramelized onion, shallots and garlic add to complexion of sweet flavour and the last ingredients is too obvious for my Indonesian licking, chili flakes! Hot and spicy made everything taste even better.
Recipe Coffee and Chili Crusted Steak with Dry Aged Ribeye Beef:
Ingredients:
- 2 @300 gr ribeye steak with 1.5 inches thickness (dry aged in relatively dry 8°C refrigerator for 3 days)
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Recipe Coffee and Chili Rubs for Marinating Beef Steak:
- 2 tablespoons ground civet coffee
- 1 tablespoon chili flakes
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika powder
- 1 tablespoon ground black peppercorn
- 1/2 teaspoon Homemade Garam Masala powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dark brown sugar
- Salt to taste
- olive oil for drizzling
How to Make Coffee and Chili Rubbed Dry Aged Beef Ribeye Steak Recipe:
- Unwrap your ribeye steak and pat dry, put it above wire rack in the middle of your fridge rack
- Set the refrigeraor in a “dry mode” and adjust the temperature console until the refrigerator temperature between 6-10°C (42 – 50°F)
- Let the steak dry aging and sit undisturbed for 2 days (prevent to open the door since the temperature will fluctuated)
- Take the steaks out of the fridge for a couple of hours and reach the room temperature prior to cooking
- Rub all the dry aged ribeye steak with the coffee and chilli rub mixture
- let the cofee and chili rub marinade the steak for about 1 hour
- Heat up your skillet until as hot as possible
- Set your stopwatch to countdown the time
- Scrap off some of the coffee and chili rubs mixture from the beef steak surface just before cooking
- Just before searing, pour the olive oil and melted butter to the pan
- Put the coffee and chili marinated ribeye steak to the pan and cook it for 15 seconds.
- Flip the steak over and over again every 15 seconds until it’s got a nice charred and crusted surface for about totally 2 minutes
- Check the dry aged wagyu beef steak doneness (medium rare is preferred) with meat thermometer until reached about 55°C and let it rest for at least 5 minutes
- Served the Coffee and Chili Crusted Ribeye Steak with Savoury Chocolate Sauce
Recipe Savoury Chocolate Sauce:
Ingredients:
- 100 grams 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Block
- 50 gr Bacon or prosciutto, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Worchestershire Sauce
- 1/2 cup Superior Beef Stock or Broth
- 1 medium size Onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
- 1 Shallots finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Chili Flakes
- 2 tbsp Salted butter
- Salt and Pepepr to taste
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Hor to Make Savoury Chocolate Sauce Recipe:
- Heat the olive oi and butter in the sauce pan
- Add the onion, shallots and garlic, saute until browned and caramelized
- Add the bacon and saute until the fat renderred then add the chili flakes
- Pour the broth and worchested sauce, then put the dark chocolate sauce
- Bring to boil and simmer until thicken
- Served the Savoury Chocolate Sauce with Coffee and ChiliCrusted Dry Aged Beef Ribeye Steak