I love cooking steak. A good quality beef and the right cut are one of the keys to making the perfect steak. There are a lot of different tricks and techniques, and I am still experimenting with different methods. My husband sure doesn’t mind my little project.
Here are a few of my conclusions. Do not flip the steak back and forth multiple times. Place the steak in a hot pan and a push it in the pan a little to make sure the entire surface touches the bottom of the skillet. Don’t touch, just trust it and let it cook. I think cooking time is something you just have to learn from experience. It depends on the thickness of the steak, the cut of the steak, and desired doneness. A good rule of thumb for obtaining the desired temp of the steak, I learned from a You Tube video by Gordon Ramsay. Chef Ramsay demonstrates what the steak will feel like to the touch by comparison to parts of your hand and wrist. I don’t know that this technique is original to Chef Ramsay but that is the first time I have heard it put that way. One of my favorite techniques is throwing a spoonful of butter in the skillet in the last minute or two of finishing up the steak. Let that butter melt and spoon it over the steak. When removing the steak from the pan, you must let the meat sit for at least 5 minutes. While the steak is resting, the butter is browning in the hot skillet. I spoon a little of the butter over the steak right before serving. It makes it so juicy and flavorful! These are my standbys but I still experiment with seasoning, types of steaks, and choice of pans. Sometimes I do all stovetop or a little of both stovetop and oven. Anyone else have tips or techniques? Standbys they use? Please let me know how you cook your perfect steak.
Charred Bell Peppers
This dinner I used a large sirloin. I seasoned with season salt and pepper, drizzled with olive oil. I will say I don’t think I had the best quality cut because the end of the sirloin was fatty. It messed up my cooking time. I ended up having to place half of the sirloin back in the pan and cook a little longer. I have tried a couple of different sauces and salsas to top a steak. Tonight, I did a bell pepper salsa with balsamic vinegar, parsley, and capers. I charred the bell peppers. Bell peppers are really not my favorite veggie. I enjoy them more when they are chopped or slice finely. This bell pepper salsa was one of the more enjoyable recipes that I have had with bell peppers.
I have a tendency to purchase an abundance of potatoes when I find them on sale. Then I scramble to use them up before they go bad. So I thought why not steak and potatoes. I made a parmesan French fry. I cut the potatoes very thin and boiled them slightly before I mixed them with salt and pepper and popped them in the oven. I cooked the potatoes for a while at 400 degrees probably at least 30 minutes. I have yet to make a homemade French fry or potato chip that has the right amount of crispiness that I am looking for. I am going to keep trying. Even after cooking these fries about 30 minutes, I still wasn’t quite satisfied.
This dinner was a good dinner. I got the basis for the pepper salsa and the parmesan fries from the Food Network website but I made some changes. I love to try out new recipes and new techniques. Always looking for way to improve.
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