Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Steak it away!

When I picked up the beef shoulder the other day, the meat dept guy happened to be a big cast iron guy.  We talked about steaks, and he mentioned that restaurants actually pan sear their steaks and then bake or broil them.  Hmmm.  I went home on a mission and started looking through web recipes.  The concensus is preheat the oven and cast iron skillet to 500 degrees.  Bring meat to room temp and blot dry.  Season with kosher or sea salt and pepper.  I also used canadian steak seasoning for the additional herb flavor.  I used a medium+ grade of meat about 1.5 lbs.  I didn't want to overspend on an experiment, next time is NY Strip, baby!  Anyhow, pull preheated skillet out and put on high heat burner.  Drop steak onto pan and allow to sizzle gloriously for 2 minutes.  Flip, continue sizzling for 2 more minutes.  This sears it and seals in the juices for cooking.  Place skillet in oven with steak untouched for 2 minutes.  Flip steak and bake for another 2 minutes.  So that is 4 sets of 2-minute cooking cycles.  After this, pull the steak from the oven and place on a warmed plate.  Cover it loosely with foil and allow to "settle" for 5-10 minutes, so the internal juices re-absorb and don't pour out when you cut into it.  Serve and enjoy.  I noted that when mine came out, it was just above medium rare.  Steaks also continue to cook for a few minutes, so watch this.  If the meat had been thicker, say 1.5-2" thick, I would have probably ended up exactly medium rare, to almost rare.  One thing for sure is that it turned out far more tender and "right" than I could have hoped or would have expected.  You would have to play with your cooking times to perfect it.  Oh darn, all those steaks you will have to go through for the sake of knowledge...
Anyway, here are a couple of pix:




1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a great way to cook a steak to me. I cant wait to try this and see how it turns out. Thanks for the "hot" tip:)

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