Saturday Night I was alone and decided to make a simple meal for myself. With a craving for a decent steak and some wine, I set out to the local Shoprite in search of a cut beef from the almighty cow. After carefully perusing the meat section, I settled on a $6 ribeye steak with a good amount of marbling in the meat.
Once home, I fired up the gas grill, opened a bottle of Shiraz (which had some serious cellaring potential) and set to work. Grilled items are best when heavily seasoned before cooking, so I seasoned liberally with salt and cracked black pepper. I took out the required tools to grill, some long tongs, some oil and paper towel to use on the grill, a plate for the steak...and the bottle of wine. With the lid closed and the grill on high, the temperature quickly rose to over 600 F. and I knew it was ready. I opened the lid, cleaned the grates with a wire brush, and oiled it up. I threw on the steak and heated up some peas with butter on the burner.
As I waited, I started to think about the wine. Jip Jip Rock is an Australian Shiraz from the Lime Stone Coast. It has a lot of typical fruit of a shiraz, and some limestone and earthiness. It was a great wine to enjoy with some steak, but I realized it is the kind of wine that really could benefit from a few years of aging.
Soon the steak was done, and I got to enjoy. It was the perfect simple meal, and the tanins of the wine helped cleanse the palate from the extra chunk of fat on the ribeye.
Like any old school steak dinner, I decided to have a strong cigar after. The perfect end to a good meal.
