STEAK!

It’s Sunday; I’ve spent the week sorting out all manner of things in the shop, listening to multitudes of lectures reciting stuff I know in search of that one particular nugget of knowledge, addressing the recent snowfall that was more ice than snow, and in general, rocking and rolling—time to deal with a bit of gratification. So that is a good meal: a steak, baked potato, salad, and two fingers of good bourbon.

I have a New York strip steak in the freezer, so I’ll place that at the center of my dinner; a nice one-pound russet baker potato and a Caesar salad will round out the meal. I’ll defrost it in the fridge overnight, then bring it to room temperature on the counter. A small note, one and one-half inches is the proper thickness for a steak; less is going to cook too quickly and not get a good crust, thicker and you may overcook/char the outside before the center is cooked correctly (not that that may be a bad thing.)

While the temperatures have moderated and the ice/snow is melting, I’m not ready to roll out the grill, so I’ll do a pan sear, then build a pan sauce.

We shall hope my GP and Cardiologist are not following my blog. (This is NOT to be a daily or even every week event; it is special, so maybe once a month at most.)

From Wikipedia:

The strip steak (sirloin in Britain, Australia, and South Africa) is a cut of beef steaks from the short loin of a cow. It consists of a muscle that does little work, the longissimus, making the meat particularly tender, although not as tender as the nearby psoas major or tenderloin. Unlike the tenderloin, the longissimus is a sizable muscle, allowing it to be cut into larger portions.

When still attached to the bone, and with a piece of the tenderloin also included, the strip steak becomes a T-bone steak or a porterhouse steak, the difference being that the porterhouse is cut from further rear and thus has a larger portion of tenderloin included. The strip steak may be sold with or without the bone. Strip steaks may be substituted for most recipes calling for T-bone and porterhouse steaks, and sometimes for fillet and rib eye steaks.

A bone-in strip steak with no tenderloin attached is sometimes referred to as a shell steak.

Pan Seared Steak

Simple, Easy, Fast, and Classic!

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Thaw Time 30 minutes mins

Course Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine American, Global

Servings 1

Calories 602 kcal

Equipment

• 1 Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Mushroom Sauce

• 1 tbsp olive oil Good, but not great stuff
• 1 tbsp Butter Grass Feed
• 6 oz Button Mushrooms Cleaned, Sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic Minced
• Salt and Pepper To Taste
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Steak

• 1 ea Steak 8-12 oz, Good Meat (See Notes)
• Kosher Salt
• 3 tbsp Butter Grass Feed
• 2 cloves Garlic Peeled, Smashed, Not minced
• 2 sprigs Thyme

Instructions

 

• Remove the steaks from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking; pat them dry with paper towels
• Season well all sides of the steaks with coarse salt and set aside.
• In a 12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and butter, mushrooms, worcester sauce, garlic and salt.
• Cook for about 3 to 5 minutes or until tender, and starting to take color. Set aside on a plate.
• Increase the heat to high and let it heat up for about 3 minutes. until the pan smokes just a bit.
• Place the steaks in the hot skillet and cook for two to three minutes per side or until the steaks get a nice crust. Do not move whilst searing.
• Add butter, garlic and thyme to the skillet. Flip the steaks again and tilt the pan to help the butter spread on the skillet. Using a spoon, pour butter over the steaks.
• Flip again the steaks and check the internal temperature of the steaks. The total cooking time for my steak was about 6 minutes. Cook to temprature, (see notes)
• When the steaks get to thedesired cooking temperature, bring back the mushrooms.
• Serve, sided with a baked potato, salad and beverage of choice

Notes

On Beef:

For steaks, I reach for rib eye or strip; the tender filet is too easy to overcook and tends to be less satisfactory, in my opinion. So if I can find bone-in ribeye, I select that; otherwise, the Strip Steak is my choice of dead cow.

The rib eye is one of the most prized cuts; the rib eye comes boneless or with the rib bone still attached. The great fat marbled within the meat and surrounding the edges via the fat white cap makes rib eyes intense and flavor beefy. 

The Strip or New York Strip is not as tender as the filet or as sumptuous as the always-fatty rib eye, but the New York strip is a solid choice. A bit more chew and a little less marbling make it less expensive.

The Filet has a soft, buttery texture that gives way to a steak knife’s mere presence. However, this cut is also nearly devoid of fat, meaning a mild flavor and less of the juiciness that carnivores crave.

On Bone-In:

While the bone might make navigating your knife and fork harder, gnawing on gristle and crispy fat is the best part of the steak-eating experience. The presence of the bone adds to the flavor and helps mediate the cooking temperature, so overcooking was more difficult.

On temperature:

• Rare (125°-130°F) A steak cooked to “rare” is very different than a “raw”. …
• Medium Rare (130°-140°F) A “medium rare” steak will be warm in the center. …
• Medium (140°-150°F) A steak cooked “medium” will be primarily pink. …
• Medium Well (150°-160°F) … Grey on the inside, shoe leather on the outside
• Well (Over 160°F) – THIS IS A CRIME.

Nutrition

Calories: 602kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 7gFat: 60gSaturated Fat: 31gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 22gTrans Fat: 2gCholesterol: 121mgSodium: 593mgPotassium: 765mgFiber: 2gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 1509IUVitamin C: 14mgCalcium: 72mgIron: 2mg

Keyword Mushroom, Pan-Fry, Steak

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