Surf & Turf – Air Fried Ribeye with Lobster and Bacon Parmesan Brussels Sprouts

Try to get your hands on a couple of 1 - 1 1/2" thick steaks if you can. Look for fat marbling throughout the meat...remember FAT = Flavor!  If they aren't available readily in your supermarket, speak to the butcher...they'll gladly cut them to size for you. Take out the Ribeyes about 20 minutes prior to cooking so they get closer to room temperature. This will help in cooking them evenly. Pat them dry, and season with generous amounts of salt and pepper. Let them continue sitting for another 10-15 minutes. Make sure they are covered throughout the resting period to avoid any cross contamination. While the steaks are resting, preheat your Air Fryer for about 3 minutes. Add the steaks, and set the timer to 11 minutes for medium rare (plus or minus a couple depending on your temperature choice), at 370 degrees.

While the steaks are cooking, add about half pound of butcher cut (THICK!) bacon on a cast iron skillet. Cast iron does a fantastic job transferring heat evenly, and ensures you don't have half of a bacon strip crunchy, and the other half chewy. Once the bacon is crisped up to your preference, take it out temporarily. In the rendered bacon fat, add the Brussels sprouts. You can go with whole baby sprouts, or sliced ones...whatever you can get your hands on. Roast/Fry the sprouts in the bacon fat for about 4-5 minutes, and then chop up and add the bacon you took out earlier. Mix well, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

In a separate small cast iron skillet (or any pan), melt 2 tbsp of unsalted butter .Add the lobster meat and the 1tbsp of finishing butter. In this recipe I used a Garlic Thyme finishing butter from Wegmans. Finishing butter is very expensive by weight when compared to the price of regular butter...I'll definitely start making some of my own soon and play around with different flavors (and they are incredibly easy to make).  The finishing butter, or also called compound butter, is added towards the end of the cooking process so it's flavors are still fresh. You only want to saute the lobster meat in the butter for a couple of quick minutes to get them nice and buttery. Remember, they're already fully cooked so keep an eye on not overcooking them.

When it comes to plating, patience is key with steaks. After the steak as finished cooking, let it rest on a cutting board for about 10 minutes. I cannot stress how important this is in ensuring a juicy steak! This resting period allows the juices to redistribute throughout the steak. If you cut into the steak right after cooking, you'll have a huge pool of juices spill out onto the cutting board or plate...making a mess and losing a lot of the flavor. Once the steak has rested, plate it and add about half of the lobster meat right on top. Pour some of the melted butter over it and add the bacon & sprouts to the plate. Finish off the plate by shredding some Parmesan on top of the sprouts. Grab a glass of wine and enjoy!