A Perfect Steak Dinner (with simple pan sauce)

I was not sure if a "steak" entry would be meaningful for my blog, since ‘how to cook steak’ would be too simple. It is as simple as: 'You buy a good meat, season with salt and pepper, and sear on a pan and finish in an oven'. Yet, there are many subtle aspects of the cooking process of a good piece of steak that remain unexplained here. For example, 'how hot should your pan be?', 'how long do you need to sear the steak?', 'how long do you cook it in the oven at what temperature?', and 'what is the right feeling for the "medium" when you touch the cooked steak?'.

I have to say, 'cook a lot of steaks and learn from your failures, and remember the lessons'.

If you thought the steak is done to medium, and you realized the center is still bloody when you slice the steak... just remember how springy the meat was when you touched it. It is medium-rare. And if next time, you realize the meat is much more greyish than you desire, again, remember what the feeling was like when you sliced the meet. It is medium-well. At the third time, you will cook a perfect medium steak.

A Perfect Steak Dinner
(+ simple pan sauce)

(Yield: 2 servings / Cooking time: 35 minutes)

Ingredients:
+ two 300g (10oz) NY strip steaks (1.5" thick)*
+ 1 Tbsp butter
+ 1 tsp vegetable oil
+ several sprigs of thyme
+ 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
+ salt and pepper

* Please make sure that your strips are at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. If the steak is too cold inside, it will not cook evenly or to the temperature that you desire.

For quick pan sauce
+ 1/4 shallot, roughly diced
+ a few sprigs of thyme
+ 1 cup red wine
+ 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
+ (optional) 1/2 Tbsp butter
+ salt and pepper


Procedures:

1. Preheat your oven at 375°F (190°C).

2. First, pat dry the two NY strips with paper towel and season them with salt and pepper generously.


3. Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a 'heavy bottom oven proof' pan and add 1tsp vegetable oil. Never use non-stick pan to sear a steak, which will not give a great crust. When the butter browns a bit and pan is hot, add your strips and two crushed garlic cloves and thyme to infuse the aroma.


4. Here is the tip to cook perfect medium steak. You get the sear (just browned the outside) on the pan, but cook the meat in the oven. Then you might ask how long you need to sear the meat. When you place the strip in the hot pan, the meat will stick to the pan, and be released from the pan when the meat is seared enough. Then, you can flip the strip and sear the other side. Sear the side of steak as well.

Sorry. There is no picture. I couldn't find a time to take a picture for this step.

5. Once all the sides of steak are seared, remove any excess fat from the pan and place the pan into the preheated oven. Lower the oven temperature to 320°F (160°C) and cook the steak for 10-15 minutes for a medium steak. The internal temperature of the meat should be 135-140°F (57-60°C)* when you take it out from the oven. You can check the doneness of meat by touching. When you press the middle of the steak, it should spring back with a bit of firmness.

*During the resting time (in step #6), the residual heat will continue to cook the inside of steak (carry-over cooking). Therefore, it is better to take out the steak from the oven when the meat reaches the lower end of medium temperature range. Usually, internal temperature of 140-145°F (60-63°C) is referred to as "medium".


6. Take out the meat from the pan and loosely cover with cooking foil for about 5-7 minutes to rest the meat. Resting is very important to distribute the juice in the meat evenly, and to relax the meat muscle that tightened during the cooking process.


! Attention ! Please be careful when you handle the pan heated in the oven. Never grab the handle of the pan with your bare hand. Always use your dry kitchen towel or baking mitts. (If you use wet kitchen towel, you might get a steam burn).


7. While the steaks are resting, make a quick pan sauce.

First, make sure that there are no "burned" bits of meat or herbs. Burned pieces will make the sauce taste bitter.

I removed the thyme, which was a bit too much browned (but not burned), and left the garlic cloves because they were okay. Add a bit of butter to the pan and sweat diced shallot over low heat.


8. Pour a cup of red wine and deglaze the pan by scrapping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Reduce the wine until you don't smell any alcohol. I also added fresh thyme.



9. Add 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar (which will give sweetness and tanginess), and continue to reduce until the sauce reaches thick consistency.

I didn't add butter, but if you want silkier sauce, turn off the heat and add a half Tbsp of butter into the sauce and swirl around. (Please note that once you add butter, you cannot reheat the sauce. The sauce will break... meaning the fat will separate from water and the sauce will give you greasy feeling.)

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. You can strain the sauce if you serve the sauce on the side, or you can just spoon the sauce directly from the pan and drizzle on top of the steak.




10. Slice the steak right before serving (right after the resting), and drizzle the sauce on top. Serve with some green salad, and a side dish. I served the potato gratin, which I shared the recipe yesterday, as a side dish. I wouldn't serve the tip of steak which must be over cooked. Yet, do not throw a way the tips!!! You can make good fried rice with them! :)

When the steak is cooked to medium and rested well, the meat should be juicy and pink without red spots which you can see in medium rare.



Enjoy the steak with a glass of red wine~