The horseradish preparation essentially involved dehydrating fresh horseradish root. I used the benriner to create small shreds, this worked a lot better than a cheese grader as the root is suprising moist when fresh. The shreds were then spread out on a plate and microwaved at 20% for two separate rounds of 15 minutes about 20 minutes apart (30 minutes with the microwave on total). This drying process pulled away most of the astringency of the root, and after obliterating these to a very fine dust in a spice grinder (old coffee grinder), the final flavor was subtle, even delicate, but distinctly of horseradish.
The cowboy ribeye was obtained from a local farming family who raises their grass-fed beef organically, finishing these with corn and flax seed; this results in a lot of the good fat like Omega-3 being present. Totally superior quality to what you can buy in the store to be sure. Another cool thing is cowboy ribeyes are really hard to come by around these parts, total coup at the farmer's market. I grilled this monster steak
at 550F for about 3 minutes a side, achieving a medium-rare doneness (this helps to melt the fat against the bone, enhancing the flavor). I split this with my buddy as the steak weighed in at over 1 1/2 pounds, but let it rest for 5 minutes before portioning.
For the port reduction, I reduced 1 cup of 2000 vintage Barros port (not the good stuff, but not bad, very plummy), with a chopped shallot and a tablespoon of tasmanian pepper berries. I strained the sauce before plating.
The port and horseradish dust were delectable with this very high quality steak, killer eats really.
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