You steak is now flattened like a badger on the A38.
Drizzle some oil onto the steak and massage in. Oil on the steak and never in the pan!
Turn the steak over and massage a tiny amount of oil into the other side too.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
You will need a cast iron grill pan and you should set the flame under it at least fifteen minutes before you start cooking. The pan should be smoking hot before you use it.
I cook my steak for under five minutes on both sides. I don’t want to spoil it.
When I eat steak, I just serve it with salad. No chips, onion rings, peas or any thing else - just salad! Of course with some balsamic dressing.
Be as generous as you like with the dressing. I also don’t eat any low fat or artificial alternatives just real salad dressing.
When some of the fat starts to render down, the steak is cooked enough and I turn it.
A medium rare steak should be as soft to touch as your cheek. You are touching your cheek right now! Medium is the touch of your chin and well done similar to the touch of the tip of your nose. You’ve just touched your cheek, chin and nose haven’t you?
I cut my steak down into strips and serve it on top of my salad.
Medium to rare steak with salad in under twenty minutes of getting in from work including salad and dressing for £2.50 each.
Simple steak supper for £2.50 per person. I don’t think the Harvester can compete with that! We don’t eat out so can justify the occasional steak.
Over to you, how do you cook your steak? Who doesn’t cook steak at home and likes to leave it to a chef? Who also thinks that only the French can actually cook a rare steak with out over cooking it! Who likes steak tartare? Who has a really good recipe for it?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxx
We cook steak regularly, at least once a fortnight. Like you, if we eat out we rarely order steak, not because it is overcooked, here in Australia it isn't, but because we prefer to order something we wouldn't or can't cook.
My preferred steak: New York cut, cooked 7 min one side, 5 the other. We don't bash the steak, hence the times.and the are cooked on the barbie.
I also slice a steak as you have done and make a Thai beef salad. It is a firm favourite in my family. Use a rump or other fillet steak. Fry and set aside so the juices have time to settle. Again, it must be very pink inside. Cherry tomatoes halved, cucumber sliced, rocket leaves. Dressing: soy sauce, juice of one lemon, fish sauce, garlic, handful of coriander, fresh chilli chopped or teaspoon of jar chilli. Mix up. Finely slice the beef. Toss all ingredients together.
I serve it with Hokkien noddles tossed with sweet chilli sauce. So good.
LikeLike
I can't understand what all the fuss is about steak. Its the very last thing I would choose to eat either out or at home. I love beef and good old casserole with tasty stewing steak is heaven but I don't like fried or grilled steak. Its never as tender as I would like it to be and I cannot understand why anyone would want to eat meat that's still raw in the middle (the same goes for lamb)…yuk!
LikeLike
It's a matter of personal taste. I don't yearn for anything sweet but love meat, especially rare steak and lamb and especially steak tartare and rare lamb
LikeLike
Steak isn't something I can afford any more, but I have to agree with you that British chefs generally cannot cook it properly. Sadly for me, I actually like my steak blue (except rib eye which is best done medium rare so the fat cooks through and enhances the flavour) and in a former life ended up with a great many over cooked, or alternatively still partly frozen or otherwise revolting attempts at cooking a perfect blue steak. It was almost like chefs couldn't believe anyone really wanted a blue steak so had to overcook it just in case.
The Aussies are a different matter altogether. I had the pleasure of living over there for a while and not only were steaks double/treble the size of ours at half or a third of the price we'd pay, the chefs knew how to cook them. I knew if I ordered blue, I got blue. Ahh, those were the days. I ate steak for three weeks solid before I came back to the UK as I knew I'd not get steak that good again!! If I were to have steak nowadays, I'd cook it myself.
LikeLike
Like a badger on the A38! Love your use of words in this post! Looks amazing, will try the full method next time we have steak. x
LikeLike
Yes, I touched my cheek, chin and nose, well I had to didn't I.
Meat is something I find difficult to cook as I don't eat it, but LH has yet to complain so I must be doing it okay 🙂
LikeLike
Another lover of “le bleu” here too. Steak is one of the few things I delegate the cooking of to my DP. I've no idea how long he cooks it for, what the temperature is and I have no intention of learning - why have a dog, then bark yourself!
It's disappointing that on the rare occasion I order a steak when out in the UK, they often refuse to serve it blue, or even rare.
LikeLike
I have never eaten a steak! We were too poor when I was younger and I went veggie when I was 12! The salad looks nice though!
LikeLike
Good on you Sue for cooking it, I know I couldn't! Thankfully I don't have to as my other half is veggie as in my son!
LikeLike
Wow. The next time I can afford to treat myself to a steak, I will be trying VERY hard not to have a mental image of roadkill. Ugh!
LikeLike
Like it just a touch pink in the middle, pan-fried in a cast iron pan, usually 4-5 mins each side does it about right, and generally stick a fork in to see if it's done.
But we don't have steak very often, as you say it's not easy to get a well-matured steak, the superstores seem to think everybody likes their bright red offerings.
LikeLike
The only way we cook steak is on the bbq. I shouldn't say 'we' as my dh is in full charge of the bbq and l am very happy about that as he does a great job. We usually use ribeye or tenderloin. Both very tender cuts and I usually use a marinade or a rub. We bbq year round here in W. Canada even when it is -30C.
LikeLike
Got to agree, here is Oz we make a mean steak and you can pretty much get it any way you want. Most steaks in restaurants go for about $25-$40 each and of course you have your extremes where some fools will pay several hundred for one steak. Lord, what does the cow eat? So, i cook steaks at home. Its something that's still a special treat and so Hubby might get one served med rare every few weeks. The secret is in the temp and the resting period. The meat needs to relax after cooking so that the juices are released back into the meat. I prefer my steak slow cooked in a juicy casserole or in a steak and kidney pie.
LikeLike
Maybe eat steak once a year if we are lucky. I took a leaf off TV and mash a beef stock cube in a little oil then put that on both sides (we do the same for a chicken breast but with chicken stock cube). Pan fry on top heat for 4 minutes one side, 3 minutes the other. To be honest though, not really bothered if we even eat steak even once a year!
LikeLike
I am terrible at cooking steak so leave it to my other half or my son, both who can do a steak brilliantly, my son in law does a mean one on the barbecue too, so I don't need to, the other problem is finding a decent steak, butchers have to be the answer here don't they? Thanks for the masterclass, maybe I will give it a try.
LikeLike
It is easy to buy a steak meal in a pub here is Australia. But I prefer to cook my own. I simply eat a pan to very hot indeed. At present we have had eye fillet which we cut to our preferred thickness. This is simply salted and cooked quickly. We leave the meat to sit for half as long as it is cooked and then serve very simply with salad or vegetables.
LikeLike
Looks delicious! In Australia, a similar meal (called a warm beef salad) in a pub, would sell for $18.90.
LikeLike
Froogs, can you tell us about that pan? I don't have one like that and I have never used one. Are they very expensive? Do you have to season it? If you did not have that pan could you do it that way but in a frying pan? Thanks! : )
LikeLike
We eat steak at home once or twice a month at home - we like it marinated overnight, then cooked on the barbeque just until seared on the outside, and warm, but red on the inside. If we eat steak out, its usually for breakfast - and always ordered rare or else its cooked to death! We don't pound it out here in the US.
LikeLike
I was terrible at cooking these in the pub, but I was veggie then, so that as probably why. Many pub cooks are about as experienced as I was.
Much better at it now, though!
LikeLike
There are some newer and much cheaper cuts of beef that make really good steak. See if your butcher does Flat Iron, Picanha or Bistro (hanger) steaks; they're made from cheaper cuts but the cut removes all the gristle and membrane you have to cut out anyway. I particularly love Picanha which is a top sirloin cut, but the Bistro/hanger steak offers the best value for money.
LikeLike
“You steak is now flattened like a badger on the A38.” I have coffee coming out of my nose and all over my laptop now 😉
LikeLike