A Friendly Nudge
...because we all could use a little encouragement!
I hope you tried the mindfulness prep exercise last week and I hope you enjoyed the salsa.
This week we’ve got a great group of exercises for you and a foolproof way to cook steak that doesn’t require a grill and generates a lot less smoke than the screaming hot cast iron skillet approach that almost always smokes up the house.
Before we start cooking the perfect steak I’ve got a suggestion for this next week. Find a couple of other times to practice the keenly observing drill that you did last week.
Maybe it’s while you’re cooking the steak or maybe it’s when you’re out on a walk, but just fully immerse yourself in the experience. Do you notice a tree on your walk that you never really paid much attention to before? Do you notice how the steak really starts to take on more color after the second turn?
Just see if there are things that stand out. That’s it. Nothing too complicated.
Now let’s cook the perfect steak.
I finally have a real vent hood and I love it, but I learned this method when I had one of those vent hoods that just seems like it blows the smoke around since it wasn’t vented to the outside.
I think I first saw this in Cooks Illustrated and I was skeptical, but I’ve done it numerous times and it works every time.
We’re going to cook a steak in a cold skillet and it’s going to give us that crust that we normally need screaming heat to develop. And then we’re going to make a quick pan sauce.
I dry brined my steaks ahead of time. I sprinkled them on both sides with kosher salt, put them on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet, and put them in the fridge uncovered for 24 hours. That lets the salt fully absorb into the meat. Kenji Lopez Alt talks about this in his book, The Food Lab.
I’m using a non-stick skillet and a carbon steel skillet for comparison and then we’ll make the pan sauce in the non-stick skillet.
We’re not going to put any oil in the skillet and we’re starting with a cold skillet.
Before you get started cooking the steaks, be sure to get everything ready.
You’ll need an instant-read thermometer, some tongs for turning the steak or steaks, and a plate for resting the steaks while we make the pan sauce.
In this video, I finely chopped a shallot, got out 2 sprigs of thyme, some chicken stock, red wine and butter to be ready for the pan sauce. You’ll also need a spoon or spatula to stir the sauce.
Put the steak in a skillet that has not been preheated and that doesn’t have any oil in it. Once we have the steak in the skillet, set the flame or the heat to high and set a timer for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, turn the steak over and reset the timer for another 2 minutes.
When the timer goes off, flip the steak again, reset the timer and turn the flame down to medium. Every time the timer goes off, flip the steak and reset the timer and now start checking your temp. I’m shooting for an internal temp of about 127°F or 53℃. You’ll pull the steak off and let it rest on the plate you set out ahead of time while you’re making the pan sauce.
Now you can start the pan sauce.
There shouldn’t be a lot of fat in the skillet from the steak, but there should be enough from the steak to start to cook the shallots. You’ll need to manage the heat, because you don’t want to burn the shallots or onion. After that has cooked for a minute or so add enough wine to barely cover the bottom of the skillet and scrape up all of the bits from the steak to make sure you don’t miss any of these flavor nuggets. This is called fond. It’s concentrated steak goodness and it will elevate the flavor of your pan sauce.
You need to continue heating and stirring the wine until it has begun to thicken. Run the spoon over the bottom of the skillet until it leaves a gap in the sauce for just a second. That is your sign to add the chicken stock and do the same thing. Heat it and stir it until it starts to thicken and reduce and then we’ll add a couple of pats of butter. This will give us a glossy sauce that elevates that perfectly cooked steak to the next level.
Pour some of the sauce on your steak and congratulate yourself on a remarkable meal!
I served our steaks with chicken stock braised bok choy with fermented chili flakes and fish sauce. Sauteed asparagus would also be a perfect match or roasted green beans would also be a winner.
We also made a quick batch of air fryer potatoes to round out the meal.