Baked/Grilled Australian Wagyu Tomahawk Steak

A few months ago I visited Anshu Pathak, the proprietor of Exotic Meat Market, at his office in Perris and enjoyed a wonderful Australian wagyu steak that his wife prepared for us. I liked it so much that I mentioned it to Anshu the other day on the telephone and explored the idea of ordering one, among some other things. He told me he had a 3.8 pound tomahawk wagyu with a marble score of 9 that would be one of the best pieces of meat I would ever eat. I've always wanted to try a tomahawk ribeye and to have it be wagyu was too much to resist. 

It arrived by courier and I yelped in delight when I opened the Styrofoam container. It was gigantic and the intense marbling was beautiful. My daughter, Rachael, LaFuji Mama, was visiting with my granddaughter, on their way to Japan. Couldn't have been a better time to try the Australian equivalent of Japanese Kobe beef. This slab of meat was so big that it looked like a guitar against the small body of my granddaughter. I told my beautiful Rachael that I was not sure which was more beautiful in the picture, her or the slab of meat. 

Two of my favorite things.

Two beauties.

I asked Rachael her opinion of how to prepare it. The response: with a piece of meat like that, don't cover it up, just put on a little salt and pepper. It was so thick that I was a little worried about how the inside would cook - I didn't want to overcook the outside, but did not want the inside to be raw/cold. 

So I heated up the oven to 425 and inserted the meat for about 25 minutes. At the same time, I fired up my outdoor gas grill and heated it to medium. After removing the ribeye from the oven, I transported it to the grill where I grilled it on both side for a total of about 10 minutes, to add a little crispiness to the outside. 

When I pulled it off the grill, I was wondering a bit about the internal status, because the outside looked quite crispy. But no worries, the inside was nice and pink, and in places a warm red. And a close look revealed the veins of marbling fat that make this meat so good. 

Judy sat down to the meal thinking this was an ordinary steak. She'd asked me what kind of meat and I responded, "cow." That is not an unusual question at our house, as cow tends to be rather rarely on our menu. After one bite she looked up at me with a look of surprise and said, "this is really good, what kind of meat is it again." I told her, "Australian wagyu." She responded, "I thought you said cow?" Well yes, a special kind of cow. A very special kind of cow.  

Butter-like, cut with a fork tender, melt-in-your mouth smoothness, natural flavor enhanced by a small amount of salt and pepper. It is generally hard to get consensus by committee, but this committee all agreed, this was the best piece of meat that any of us had ever had. 

Look at the marbling throughout this piece of meat!

Anshu, all I can say is "you are the man!" You not only unlock the key to the door to meats of unusual animals, but you also unlock the door to unusual meats of one of the most common animals, the cow. And that cut from an un-common cow may be the most unusual piece of meat I've ever eaten. I don't know that I ever will again have such a great piece of meat. But I know who has the key to the door if I decide to try that door again.