I’ve always struggled a bit at home with cooking steaks. I either overcook them or under cook them, which is really infuriating when you have spent quite a bit of money on a good cut of beef.
I have picked up quite a few tips along the way which I will share.
Firstly – get a good cut of meat. My favourite is sirloin as you get the fat for the flavour but it doesn’t run through the actual meat. Whatever steaks you choose you need to remember that different meats should be cooked differently. For example a rump is on a piece of the cow that moves so you can eat it rare, but fillet and sirloin are from a bit that doesn’t move so needs to be cooked at least medium rare to free the elasticity of the meat.
I don’t think that a steak should ever be cooked any higher than medium. It’s just a waste of a good meat… but I’m not going to get started on that debate right now.
OK so, here we go:
My brother told me always oil the steak, not the pan.
So use some good quality olive oil and drizzle over the steak. Get your hands involved and rub the oil all over.
Once it’s covered in the oil, season with some salt and pepper. I don’t think you need to put anything else on the meat, if you have a good steak, why hide the taste?!
Heat a pan (make sure it’s big enough to fit the steaks!) preferable a griddle, but frying pan is fine.
Leave on the heat until the pan starts to smoke slightly – measure you have your extractor fan on.
Add the oiled and seasoned steak to the pan. It will smoke and sizzle, but don’t worry. Leave it alone.
Use a timer or your watch and time 2 minutes.
Once 2 minutes is up use a spatula to flip it over and count another 2 minutes.
Once you have had two minutes on both sides remove the steak and place on a plate or board. Make sure the plate isn’t freezing cold, but room temperature is fine, or if you use a board make sure it has a ridge or lip to catch juices. Cover with tinfoil.
Use your timer again to rest for 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes is up serve – how simple is that?!
Very.
If you are making a sauce, add any juices that have come out of the steak onto the plate before serving. But I like to serve mine with home made garlic butter.
If you want medium or rare add or minus a minute:
Rare : I minute each side
Medium rare : 2 minutes each side
Medium : 3 minutes each side
