Heart-shaped Ribeye Steak for Valentine’s Day

I know you’re probably thinking: “What can I do for Valentine’s Day dinner?”. If you’re anything like me, you have young kids and like to avoid the overly priced and packed restaurants, just do what you know best, grill! Grilling at home gives you the versatility of cooking anything you and your loved one enjoy to eat - it can be seafood, meat, chicken, vegetables, anything! 

If you need any ideas on what you can do on the grill, you’ve come to the right place. You can look at the many recipes we have on our website or, just follow along in this blog to see how I do a heart-shaped Ribeye for my wife with a side of her favorite grilled vegetables!

See the video below and check out how it all turned out: 

Video Recipe

Directions:

1. Start by taking your Ribeye and butterflying it through the middle - be careful not to over cut it, because it might fall apart. 
2. Lay it flat and trim some of the unnecessary fat around the edges, then carefully use your knife to carve out some pieces to make it look more like a heart.
3. Prepare your vegetables, peel and cut onion in half.
4. Season both the Ribeye and the vegetables thoroughly with coarse salt.
5. Place your cast iron skillet on the grill and put half of the butter to let it melt and get hot. 
6. Gently pick up the skillet with a glove and place the ribeye to avoid any splatter or burns. Place the skillet back on the fire.
7. Put the other half of the butter on top of the ribeye.
8. Add your vegetables directly to the grill and close the lid for a minute or two to get that butter melting. 
9. Open the lid and flip the ribeye, let it cook for a minute. Check on your veggies, you want that nice grill mark on them. 
10. For a medium rare finish, the temperature should be at around 135F - that’s when I remove it from the heat and let it rest 
11. Remove the vegetables and plate! 

Ready for a “hearty” meal… 

The ribeye at the end, seems to have lost a bit of its shape. It still looks like a heart but not a perfectly shaped one… but it’s ok the intention and the flavor is what really counts! I set up a nice table with some red roses and I am good to go. 

As I give a piece to my wife to try I realize that half of the ribeye is a little thicker and cooked to the perfect medium rare and other half is slightly thinner and has more of a medium finish - so this is a great way to share a steak when people have different doneness preferences.

The ribeye is so good, of course my first piece comes from the spinalis dorsi, and it is just tender and full of flavor. I usually just season ribeye with just salt and let those natural flavors come out, but you can definitely use other seasoning. The vegetables are juicy and so good, the charcoal has given it the perfect smoky flavor and again with little seasoning you can go a long way. 

At the end of the day, Valentine’s day is not really just about the gifts and chocolates,  but really just spending time with a loved one - whether you do decide to go out for a nice dinner, or just have a nice grilled meal at home. For me it's a nice way to wind down with my wife, after the little ones are asleep, but still get to spend that quality time with her.

Let me know what your Valentine’s day plans are in the comments below.