Smoked Steaks with Porcini Slather

I cook everything I eat without salt - amending recipes, substituting ingredients and making foods from scratch are my specialty! My fiance brought home some lovely New York Strip Steaks from the Market and so I decided to make Smoked Steaks with Porcini Mushroom Slather for an early gourmet dinner :)

For this recipe you will need a charcoal grill, wood chips for smoke flavor, as well as a spice grinder (I use my coffee grinder).


Ingredients

For Steak:
2 New York Strip Steaks
Worcestershire Sauce
Balsamic Vinager
Chinese 5 Spice
Spices, Inc Salt Free Steak Rub

For Slather:
1-2 ounces of dried porcini mushrooms (or a mushroom mixture)
6 garlic cloves
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 sprinkle of sugar

Steaks
First, soak a handful of wood chips in a bowl of water - chips need to soak for at least a half hour so that they do not burn up in the grill. Get your coals started in your coal starter. We use natural lump charcoal, which burns clean and does not leave any weird starter fluid residue on our foods :)

Next, you will want to take your steaks out of the fridge so that they can come to room temperature. We will be adding a little bit of a marinade to the steaks, as well. First, sprinkle a small amount of Worcestershire and Balsamic on the steaks - be sure to turn them over a few times so that the liquids evenly coat both sides of the meat. Then apply the tiniest amount of Chinese 5 spice powder - just a few specks on each side. It is important not to put too much Chinese 5 spice on the steaks or the flavor will outshine your porcini slather, which would be silly. Next take your Salt Free Steak Rub and rub a generous portion into each side of the steak. Applying pressure helps the rub penetrate into the meats and stay on during cooking. Now you can let your steaks hang out while you get your charcoals poured into your grill. Once your charcoals are nice and hot, go ahead and brown each side of your steaks for 1-1/2 minutes. The grill should be very hot for this step. Once your steaks are browned on all sides, let them rest, uncovered, and prepare your slather while your grill cools slightly. Temperature for smoking should be around 400F.

Browned Steaks

For the Slather
Grind the dried mushrooms in your spice or coffee grinder and add to a small bowl. Peel and mince garlic into same bowl. Add 1 sprinkle of sugar (more if desired), and enough olive oil to make a mushroomy sludge (see picture).

Porcini Mushroom Sauce

Now that your Grill is ready to smoke, spread your soaked wood chips evenly across the coals and place your steaks on the rack, closing the lid quickly to keep the smoke inside. You will want to keep your grill's vents open enough to keep the fire going, but only slightly cracked to retain the smoke inside the grill. Cook the steaks on 1 side first before adding the slather, for about 5 minutes. Then flip the steaks and add the slather to the top of each steak, and quickly close the lid to retain smoke. Cook for about 5 minutes longer for medium-rare.

Grilling Steaks

These little guys are gourmet with no need for salt!

Finished Steaks

For Reference, here is the salt free steak seasoning, which can be purchased at
http://www.spicesinc.com/p-460-salt-free-steak-rub.aspx

Buen Provecho!