Beef - It's whats for dinner

Whats better than a perfectly cooked steak with some delicious mushrooms, and mash potatoes?

There are many things, but this is certainly a simple meal that you can make at home that will satisfy your hunger!!

First thing is first, when buying steaks, pork chops, or any kind of meat like this, buy it fresh. Don't buy a ribeye and put it in the freezer until you plan to eat it. Just don't.

So you have a wonderful (for the sake of this, a rib eye but this is the general technique to cook steaks) rib eye in front of you and you think to yourself: "I just spent $10 on you so you better taste great!" I will give you the simple steps to cooking a great steak at home. Here we go!



Take your steak/steaks, season them liberally with salt and pepper. Leave them out for 30minutes. Its best to cook your meat when its tempered a little bit. It promotes even cooking.

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A quick note on what to use to cook your steak. You can surely grill it, and with summer coming up this is a sure fire success. Whats that? You don't have a grill? Not a problem. Grab a saute pan big enough for your steaks. If you have one, use a cast iron pan. I typically prefer to sear my steak in a pan rather than grilling it.  Once again, the cast iron will give you more of an even heat than a regular saute pan.


So preheat your cooking vessel, be it a grill, saute pan, cast iron pan. I'll talk about using a cast iron.  Get this sucker hot. Add a small film of oil, add your meat. Make sure to lay the meat away from you so you don't splash your self. Turn your heat to medium high. Leave it. Let it cook. Let it develop some browning. That is FLAVOR COUNTRY! Sear this bad boy for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. Use your best judgment when doing this. You can check it periodically if you're afraid of burning it. While checking it, adjust your heat if necessary. Try to get a nice even browning. Manipulate your meat so that you can get the most out of it. Move it around your pan to hit all the hot spots.

This next part is a "choose your own adventure"

Flip it and add maximum flavor
Once you flip it over sear it only for 1-2minutes this time. Lower the heat and add a nob of butter in the pan and some aromatic ingredients. I like to use a piece of fresh thmye, garlic, and shallot. The butter will start to melt. Quickly spoon the butter of the steak to baste it. This will flavor your steak with butter ++aromatics. Do this for 1 minutes. Your steak is about rare (assuming its about 1in thick).

Flip it and keep it simple (no shame with this route)
Once you flip it over sear it for about 2-3 minutes at medium heat. Your steak should be rare-ish.

If you like your steak more well done you could add a lid. I'd suggest +1 minute after the 2-3minutes for mid-rare, +2minutes for medium. And if you want it mid-well, you could have just stuck it in the microwave from the beginning.

Once your steak is "done" cooking. Take it out of the pan and onto a resting area. This place can be room temp, but certainly NOT cold. Lots of things are going on in your steak. The steak is actually still cooking. This is called carry-over cooking. It'll probably cook slowly for an addition 1-3 minutes. The juices are also settling back into the meat. This is important because if you rest it properly, when you eat it the juices should be in every bite. if you don't let it rest, all your juice will flow out with your first slice.

This is a great time to use all that flavor in your pan. I'm partial to mushrooms with my steak. So add your mushrooms and onions to the pan. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Season. Make sure to keep that flame cranked so you can get some good browning on your mushrooms! And serve. YUM.

Man I don't know about you, but I really want a steak now.


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