Grilled Rib-Eye Steaks with Parsley, Celery & Blue Cheese

I dipped my toes into the crisp water of the puget sound today. I needed the biting cold relief from the water to cool me down from the heat. Standing next to a good friend we soaked in the moment, reveling in the sun wishing, for a moment, that every day could have the sun, picnics, fresh-picked raspberries, burgers and ice cream that today had. But then we both quickly stopped the fantasizing because we realized that one wouldn’t be as sweet without the other. I need the gray skies to appreciate the blue ones.

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”  John Steinbeck

When the days are dark and the skies are gray it’s hard to imagine a time when the windows remain open all day and dinner is outside; simple and cooked over the fire. If I wasn’t living in the city and fearful of infuriating my neighbors with all the smoke I think I’d cook every summer meal over the fire. There’s just something so freeing about breaking cooking down to its most basic elements. Food. Fire. Dinner.

I’ve been so eager to share this post with you. It’s actually the first in a series of three grilling videos that I created with my brother, Chris Baron, along with Porter & York; a local company that offers hand-cut meat delivered to your door within 48 hours of ordering. We’ll release the other videos throughout the summer but for now, there’s rib-eye.

I say it in the video and I’ll say it here too; when you have good meat there’s really not a whole lot that needs to be done to it in order to turn it into a great meal. Here the meat is seasoned with just salt and pepper before it hits a very hot fire. It’s grilled just long enough for a nice, thick crust to form on the exterior while the interior stays pink. On top fragrant blue cheese left to melt under the heat of the steak and a salad of parsley and the sweet, tender hearts of celery. My awkward mouth-full of food says it all; I’m a big fan of this recipe.

Grilled Ribeye with Parsley, Celery and Blue Chesse from Gabriel Rodriguez on Vimeo.