Steak - how to cook and what to have with it {Mega Merge!}

I was out for a meal one evening with a crew from work. I brought up the subject of Wagyu beef. I am always amazed at the total bullocks that some people will spout in the belief that it is truth. Wagyu cattle are genetically predisposd to intense marbling in the meat - making it very flavoursome and tender and so very expensive.

There is a mythology about the diet the cattle are fed. One eejet at the table tells me that the animals are force fed chocolate to such an extent that the meat tastes like chocolate. When I made light of this allegation, he got a bit upset - he actually believed that the beef tastes like chocolate!! (For the avoidance of doubt, Wagyu beef tastes a lot like --- beef.)

One of my faves from a local restaurant...

Thick cut of Simmental-beef sirloin steak, seared for a second or so on each side, served on a hot (i.e. sizzling) stone so it cooks at my place at the table.

The beef is amongst the best I've ever eaten - Simmental beef, reared organically in the Simmental...which means in summer its up the mountains, feeding on all those nice alpine grasses and flowers n stuff. Locally reared, locally butchered, hung to perfection.

When the cut isn't too thin, I start with steak so rare you couldn't even call it blue, and finish with the last pieces just reaching medium.

They typically serve it with sauce cafe de Paris, but supply other sauces on request. I avoid all of that - steak this good needs at most a bit of salt and pepper.

Fantabioso.

For cooking steak at home.....BBQ is the only thing that has the temps to do it really right. Failing that...a heavy griddle is the next best thing.

Just an observation: I was talking to an apprentice chef over here who works in an restaurant that does steaks and pizzas. He says they colour all their steaks on the griddle and finish them in the pizza oven, but he says it's down to time. They can get more steaks finished to order more quickly if they use the oven.

RE*AC*TOR wrote: »

One thing that has yet to be mentioned on this thread is.... a cast iron frying pan.

+1 that man. The cast iron is absolutely necessary or the pan won't keep the temperature you want during the searing. No point in paying lots of money for steak and then not cooking it right. Have a cast iron griddle pan that always gets used for steak, unless it's steak au poivre, because it's a pain to do a pan sauce from a griddle pan.
Steak au poivre is damn nice, and the aged ribeye that Locks serve with pommes frites and bearnaise sauce is fabulous, but the aged fillet that you can get from the butchers in Fallon & Byrnes is my favorite at the moment.
Thing is, I don't really think you can barbecue fillet - ribeye or sirloin, yes, but fillet's just seems a bit too delicate.

can anyone reccomend and easy to make sauce for fillet steak.

Must have's jack daniels and cream...:)

I do something similar to Ponster's link, usually with brandy, but without the broth. Just use your JD instead. Any extra juices that come out of the steaks while they are resting should also be tipped into the sauce.

Say you like your steak medium; how can you achieve this without cutting it open to check (which I think is a bit naff anyway as it ruins the appearance and the meat continues to cook a bit even after you take it off so it can often be misleading)?

I've heard various vague reports claiming that if you push a knife (the flat face) into the meat and observe the response you can tell.

Anyone?

Also, while I'm here:
a) Just some black pepper, olive oil & lemon juice (or similar)

or

b) Go to town with an inventive marinade?

If you have a good meat supplier you shouldn't need to add flavour to the meat via marinades etc. We sometimes add a slice of flavoured butter (herb, garlic or whatever). I would second the above serving suggestion - rocket salad also goes particularly well!

Chop garlic and rosemary and mix with a tablespoon of good olive oil and a shake of pepper. Sit the steak in this for an hour. Then salt it and fling it on a hot griddle for two minutes each side.

Serve it with a baked potato and a greek salad.

Cook steak as you like. Put it aside to rest in a warm place.
In same pan that you fried the steak - add some olive oil & on a high heat fry a bunch of chopped scallions (whites & greens) for 2/3 mins. Then add a diced tomato & fry for a further 2/3 mins. Pour in 1/2 pint beef stock & allow to reduce by half. Season well.

Make a 'volcano' out of mashed potato. Pour the scallion/tomato gravy into the 'crater' & serve with the steak.

BBQ it!

And serve with creamed corn, potato gratin and bearnaise sauce.

HAHM!

Seconded on the cast iron. Thing is, if you get one with ridges, you can't make a pan sauce (well, not as easily), so things like steak au poivre are out. But then, if you do get one with ridges, you get those lovely caramelised stripes and the steak just tastes a little better.
Hmmm.

Ah, perfect - get two

(Actually, if you can get one cast iron frying pan without ridges and one BBQ grill, that's the best of both worlds).

Winter Fancy Caricature wrote: »

Kitchen Complements off Grafton Street

I always thought they were horrendously expensive.
Oddly, Brown Thomas's kitchenware department isn't too bad for some things (knives and le creuset).
But anywhere you can get a bargain is the better idea. Especially if it's without ridges.

On cast iron I'd go for non-branded. So just a plain bog standard cast iron pan or griddle. The griddle squares often have a stainless steel handle that'll fold in for easy storage.

I paid a tenner for my cast iron griddle (about 10" square with a folding steel handle) and twelve quid for my cast iron frying pan (12" round with a cast iron handle).

On the griddle, 10" square is officially a crap size and shape for a cast iron griddle. It's too small and you end up cooking servings of whatever one at a time to achieve best effect. You don't want to crowd steaks onto a pan - they'll reduce the heat of the pan too quickly. If I was buying again, I'd go for either a round, ridged pan in 12" or 14" or a rectangular ridged pan - one of the ones that'll fit on either a fish burner or two rings on the hob.

As an aside, the 12" cast iron frying pan is a winner for doing naan breads - I put it over the wok burner, drop the shaped, raw naan dough into the hot pan to get the singed effect, and put the whole shebang, pan and all, into an oven pre-heated to the highest setting. Finally because I'm cooking on gas I can achieve the bubbled effect by toasting the naan with a tongs over the wok burner.

If I was going for something a bit different, like enamel over cast iron, I'd go for a well-known and guaranteed brand like le creuset, but with plain cast iron I wouldn't bother spending the extra cash, I'd work more on getting a useful size and shape of pan.

I wouldn't dream of telling you to go for a fillet (tasteless pap if you ask me).

Check out this thread for some ideas.