charred nectarine; lemon-rosemary; browned butter; pork rib eye steak
Peach (or nectarine) and lemon go so well together, illustrated by their use in peach-lemon flavoured ice tea. Lemon and rosemary also pair really well with various meats, especially lamb and chicken. This morning, I had the idea of pairing these four things together, lemon, nectarine, rosemary and some pork rib eye steaks!
The result was a quick lunch that felt like something from a very expensive menu.
The browned butter added a nutty flavour, the rosemary and lemon cut through the extreme fatty and richness of the pork and butter, and the charred sweetness of the nectarine compliments both the savoury taste of the pork and the sourness of the lemon. And surprising to me, the rosemary and the nectarine paired so well. I loved the flavour combination.
In this recipe post, I want to share with you this idea I had this morning and how I made it. I hope that I can inspire you to make it for yourself, as it only takes about 30 minutes in total. So please follow along with me as I show you how I cooked this dish and what ingredients I used.
Ingredients List/Recipe
This dish is again one of those minimalistic dishes in which each element is carefully chosen and respected. It only uses a handful of ingredients:
| - 1 tbs of butter, 1 lemon's juice, 1 nectarine, - a couple of rosemary sprigs, 4 small pork rib eye steaks, and - salt and pepper - (optional: smoked paprika) |  |
Process/Method
I love my cast iron pan, and recently with my obsession with pork rib eye steaks, I have been using it almost daily. So, whilst I was prepping the ingredients (which were minimal), I heated the cast iron pan until it was really hot.
As I said, while the pan was heating up, I decided to cut the nectarine into individual slices. The trick was to get the edges nice and smooth as the more surface area there is the better the browning/charring.
As I did this, I began cooking the steaks. Before I cooked them, I briefly marinated the steaks in the lemon juice with some oil. I also salted the steaks beforehand. TIP: If you salt the meat beforehand, it penetrates deeply into the meat and some moisture will be drawn out. Salting beforehand also helps with browning the meat.
When I was ready to cook the steaks, I placed them in the warm pan and cooked them for a couple of minutes on each side. I flipped them a total of four or so times. Whilst I cooked the steaks, I added the lemon-marinade (basically just the lemon juice) to the pan.
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As I said, I flipped them about 4 times. So after the second flip, I added the nectarines. These I only flipped once before I added the last of the lemon juice marinade.
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The lemon juice began to reduce into a kind of thick syrup, that was when I added the butter.
I added about one tbs of butter to make the lemony-butter sauce. As the butter started to melt, I turned off the pan. As the pan retains a lot of heat, the butter will brown on its own. I then also added the rosemary. I cut the sprigs into small pieces and added them to the melting butter.
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And then the dish was done! I plated it in a fancy way with a rosemary leaf, as we eat with our eyes first. It looked nice and again it felt more fancy than the 20 or so minutes it took me to cook. The flavours balanced each other out so beautifully. The sweet and sour aspects was perfect, the sweet and savory complimented each other, the sour broke through the fat and butter, and the herby note from the rosemary was just perfect.
The charring of the nectarine intensifies the sweetness, but it also adds flavour to the butter which coated the pork rib eye steaks. The caramelised bits of nectarine floating in the butter added to the complexity of the flavours.
I hope that this recipe will inspire you to cook something similar! Having respect for the ingredients will keep your cooking elevated above most others!
Have you cooked something similar? Please let me know in the comments.
For now, happy cooking and stay well.
All of the writings and musings in the post are my own. The recipe is also my own, as this was a random thought I had this morning. I did not consult other recipes for this dish. The photographs are my own, taken with my iPhone.