My wife likes steak. A lot. We eat steak regularly. I get lots of practice cooking steak. I have become experienced at cooking steak. Grilling steak. Broiling steak. Eating steak. That parses like Hemingway with a brain injury.
Sometimes it's comforting to be repetitive. Repetition may be the enemy of chance, especially in the kitchen. Thus, I offer my perfect steak supper recipe, safe in the knowledge that it has been tested to death. All that you require is good quality, aged steak. Spend decent money and it will be as good as a restaurant meal, I promise. I like Aberdeen Angus ribeye with a nice marbling of fat and no bone, so that I can do two at once in my small pan. Sirloin is good too. Rump is ace. T-bone is tasty. Fillet is acceptable, notwithstanding its shameful lack of fat. The steaks should be at least an inch thick. This way you get to sear the outside and keep the inside medium rare. I make no bones for only telling you how to cook a steak medium rare. Any more cooked, and you're wasting a good piece of meat and should really just stick to casseroles and things eaten cold out of a tin with a spork, possibly while wearing fingerless gloves. I scorn equally those macho blowhards who insist on eating a steak blue. You want it to be heated through, don't you? I bet you're the type of pestiferous customer that gives steakhouse chefs the heebie-jeebies.
You'll also need a blue steel frying pan (e.g. de Buyer) or something similar (non teflon-coated is preferable) that is oven proof (no rubber handles).
With this dish, timing is important, so make sure your prep work is done before the steak hits the pan, and that the salad is made and the potatoes done.
Pan fried steak with steak potatoes
Get your steak out of the fridge 2 hours before you cook it to allow it to come to room temperature. An hour before you want to eat, wash some smallish potatoes (I like Rooster for this dish – allow 2 or 3 per person) and cut into quarters lengthways. Keep the skin on. Now dry the potato wedges in a tea cloth and then put into a mixing bowl with 1 tsp olive oil, a generous pinch of cayenne pepper, 1 tsp curry powder, and a good grind of salt. Toss to mix well, spread out on a baking sheet skin side down and put into an oven preheated to 190C and cook until they yield to the tip of an inquisitive knife.
Turn your attention to salad. I don't wish be prescriptive, suffice it to say that a little dressed watercress or something peppery (I'm loathe to use the r word, arugula being shorthand for 90's bistro laziness, but it does the trick) or what I had – a little red chicory dressed with a honey, dijon, lemon and oil emulsion.
Now, turn up your oven to 250C. Whilst you are waiting for it to reach the required heat, finely chop 1 small clove of garlic and ½ tsp fresh thyme. When the oven is hot you can begin cooking the steak: place your pan on the hob and turn on to the highest setting. Be brave. Wait a few minutes until you have created a mini mirage above the hob, and the dry pan is smoking. Rub each steak with a tiny drizzle of grapeseed or peanut oil (not olive oil – the smoke point is too low). Get your stopwatch handy. Salt one side of the steaks and lay, salt side down in the pan. Count 2 minutes. Don't prod or move the steaks. Don't turn the heat down. Don't be tempted to cook them longer. You may want to switch on your extractor fan. After 2 minutes, salt the other side of the steaks and turn them over. Wait another 2 minutes.
Remove the pan from the hob and place in the hot oven. Allow 3 minutes, maybe up to 4 if you'd like your steak closer to medium. Take out the oven (at this point switch the oven off and put your plates in – steaks deserve a nice warm plate). Add the garlic and thyme to the pan, along with a little knob of butter. Stir well, and add a grind of pepper. Careful, that pan is going to be very hot.
Get those plates out, put your steaks on and drizzle the scant meat juices/butter mixture over them. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, then garnish with the potatoes and salad.
Eat with a steak knife, please. And drink a nice bottle of sturdy red out of your best glasses. We had a bottle of 1999 De Toren Fusion V. It was lovely, the tannins were well integrated and there was still an imprint of sweet fruit, chocolate and vanilla.
