Seared rib eye of beef, chimichurri and polenta with roasted jalapeno. citrus vinaigrette salad

step 1
First the polenta, this should be done the day before or at least several hours before cooking the beef. The polenta. If using pre-cooked polenta place polenta and crumble into a bowl, set aside. Take your peppers and garlic and roast them in a pre-heted 350f oven in a shallow baking pan. Rub ingredients with a little olive oil, this should take roughly 20-30 minutes depends on the calibration of your oven. Once garlic and peppers have become charred or a very dark brown color remove from oven and set aside. Cut stem off and slice open the pepper. With a spoon remove viens and seed from pepper. Take pepper and cut into a julienne strip. Mince both garlic and pepper. Place both minced pepper and garlic into bowl of polenta and fold (mix) into polenta.

step 2
At this time take polenta mix and chill it over night or several hours before cooking steak. Place polenta into a shallow baking pan, spread evenly, pack it down gently with your hands or spatula and cover with plastic wrap. Once polenta mix has time to chill and set up, cut into rounds or desired shape. Set aside in cooler.

The beef, get a saute pan nice and hot with a drizzle of olive oil, season beef on both sides. When pan has just started to smoke or oil has a shimmery look, place beef into pan. DO NOT move or touch beef once in the pan at this stage. What we are doing is searing the beef and creating a crust but letting the beef sit in the the hot pan the seasonings, beef and the fat from the beef is creating a nice "crust" of flavor. Depending on how thick or type of cut of beef, i usually sear beef roughly four minutes per side or until medium rare roughly 140f internal temperature.
While beef is cooking remove chilled polenta and cut into discs or what desired shape you wish by using circular cutter or shape the polenta mix by hand into discs. Set aside. Let's start on the dressing for the salad and Chimichurri.

step 3
The Citrus Vinaigrette
Squeeze fresh lime juice into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil until blended well or emulsified. Set aside.

The Chimichurri
Take your fresh parsley, chop of stems and rough chop parsley and peel whole garlic and chop. Place ingredients into blender, add a little olive oil to moisten parsley and garlic, this helps the blender do its job easier. Blend. As parsley and garlic blend drizzle olive oil to emulsify (mix,blend) until a thick sauce begins to form, thick but not a paste. In a bowl set aside.

step 4
At this point the beef should be done. Remove beef from pan and set aside on cutting board to "rest". This helps the beef to redistribute it's juices, by doing this when you slice into it the juices will not run all over your cutting board and your hard work will be for not. Now for the polenta.

Once you form your polenta into your desired shape, place polenta into same saute pan as the steak. Simply take a paper towel if there is too much oil or grease from the steak and wipe away. Place a dab of unsalted butter into hot pan, as butter melts use a spoon (wooden preferred) to scape bottom of pan of any debris from steak. The reason for this is that the polenta will pick up extra flavor from the steak. Plus it cuts down on dishes to be cleaned later. Same as the steak once polenta is placed in the hot pan DO NOT touch it, we are creating the same effect with the polenta as the steak, a nice golden brown crust. Set aside. Now for the beef.

step 5
At this point, the beef has rested and is ready to be sliced. Slice beef against its grain to produce tender slices and slice beef on a byass.

step 6
The salad, wash your greens, chop finely if necessary and set aside. In a bowl take your citrus vinaigrette and dress the side of a bowl and place the greens in that bowl and with your hands (prefer) mix your greens into the dressing. set aside.

step 7
Putting it all together.
With a spoon take the chimichurri and place a nice tablespoon or so of the Chimichurri and swirl in a small tight circle figure on the plate. Place polenta on top and centered, place sliced beef horizontally across polenta, gently place a pinch of the salad on top of the beef and gently pull up on the salad by pinching the top and pull upward gently to give height to the dish. Serve.