Steak and Greens

i like a rare steak. what of it.

I love my grill.  I love it so much that sometimes, late at night, I walk out onto my balcony and give it a supportive little pat, because I want it to know I appreciate it.

But that shiny, beautiful jerk likes to overcook my steaks.  It won’t overcook chicken, sausage, pork, or even shrimp.  It saves its brattiness for really good steaks.  Which is why, for better or worse, I cook my steaks in a pan on the stove.  Please don’t tell my dad.

I have an easier time controlling the temperature of the steaks in a pan on the stove.  I use a big, stainless steel skillet, which gets really hot, and then I can melt a little bacon grease before I put the steaks in.  Additionally, there’s all kinds of brownish-beefish bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, which are crying out to be made into a sauce, or to perform my absolute favorite cooking miracle: COOKING ALL THE ELEMENTS OF YOUR MEAL IN THE SAME PAN.  Yeah, this whole dinner occurs in one pan.

Steak and Greens

2 steaks, any kind will do.  I used sirloin this time, but my favorite choice is ribeye.  Whatever you like is fine.

salt and pepper

a little bacon fat, if you have it

1 bunch Swiss chard, ribbed and roughly chopped*

2 shallots, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp dijon mustard

3-4 tbsp brown sugar

red pepper flakes, if you like

a few tablespoons of water

crusty bread and butter

Method: Remove the steaks from the fridge 30 minutes or so before you want to cook them.  Season them liberally with salt and pepper.  In a large pan (large enough to cook two steaks at the same time, keeping them at least 2 inches apart from each other and the sides of the pan – if you don’t have a pan that big, cook them one at a time) on high heat, melt a little bacon grease and wait for the pan to get really, really hot.  When it’s hot enough, pop in the steaks, they should sizzle, a lot.  Depending on the thickness of the beef, it might take 2-4 minutes per side for medium rare.  Err on the side of bloody, that’s what I say.

see how they're not crowded in the pan? don't crowd them!

A minute or two before your steaks are cooked to your desired doneness, remove them to a plate and cover with foil.  Don’t cut them or mess with them or anything, just leave them alone for awhile.  In the meantime, turn the heat down to medium, toss the garlic, shallots, vinegar, mustard, sugar and water into the pan and let it cook for 5 minutes or so, stirring it around so the browned bits of beef are all deglazed.

de-glazing!

Finally, put all the chard into the pan and move it around with tongs, letting it wilt.  I do this whole process for maybe 6 minutes or so, 3 minutes with the heat still on, 3 minutes with the heat turned off.  When that’s done, you can slice your steaks (against the grain!!!) and serve over the greens, with crusty bread to sop up the beef drippings/greens dressing.

* Swiss chard is kind of a pain in the ass.  It’s a really sandy vegetable, so you have to wash it carefully, and it requires that you cut out almost all of the center ribs in the 5000 leaves of chard the bunch you buy will certainly include.  So to cut out the rib, rinse each leaf well, lay it out flat, and cut out the rib with a knife.  When they’ve all been de-ribbed, roll them up in bunches and cut them up.

pain in the ass vegetable. but it is among the most nutritionally dense vegetables on the planet. also: they look like dinosaur plants.

- Cat

Momofuku ribeyes, boyfriend style

So Dom wanted to make me dinner. Or rather- I dropped extremely unsubtle hints about him making me dinner until he agreed. Dom does a hilarious and adorable thing when attempting to cook, which is, look around panicked at all the ingredients out on the counter having no idea where to start. He doesn’t know what to chop first or cook first (or, when cooking for himself, which to open first, the box or the jar). Learning how to time correctly in cooking is, in my opinion, the hardest part of it, so rather than let him freak out trying to cook me dinner, I suggested we cook dinner together. Here’s what we made:

Momofuku Pan-Roasted Steak

2-2.5 lb bone in ribeye (I made 2 1.5 lb ribeyes, because I like steak, and because so does Dom)
salt
fresh ground pepper

4 tbsp butter
3 cloves of garlic
1-2 shallots
a sprig of thyme

Coat the steaks liberally with salt and pepper, and let them come to room temperature while you’re doing whatever else. In the meantime, put your oven on at 400 degrees, and let the biggest cast iron (or general oven safe) pan you have get reaaaaaaally hot on the stove.

When the steaks are room temperature, the oven is at temperature and the pan is smoking, put the steak in the pan, and probably open a window and turn on the fan above your stove. Let the steak sit without moving for 2 minutes, then flip and let the other side cook for 2 minutes. The Momofuku recipe has you sear the side of the steak on the fatty edge, but I didn’t do that.

Then, put the whole thing, pan and all, in the hot oven. The recipe says leave it in the oven for 8 minutes, and don’t you dare touch it while it’s in there. I would say more like 4-4.5 minutes and don’t you dare touch it, but I like a medium-rare steak. If you like a medium-well steak, you could go 8 minutes. I did as the recipe said and left it for 8 minutes, and the steaks were more done than I like them.

After however many minutes you decide, take the whole thing out and put it over low heat on the stove, putting in the pan the 4 tbsp of butter, the shallots, garlic and thyme. Now, for the next, and most important step, baste the hell out of the steak with all that melted butter and deliciousness. This was a job I gave to Dom, because the thing weighs like 40 lb. Basically, you hold the pan at a 45 degree angle, letting the butter pool at one side of the pan, then you spoon it over the steaks, moving everything around a bit. You do this for 3-5 minutes, I’d say, depending on how done you like your steaks. For medium rare, like I like it, I would go maybe 3-4 minutes.

Then put the steaks on a plate to rest, for 10 minutes. I cannot, for the love of God, stress how important it is to let your meat rest. I know you’re hungry, but trust me. You WANT to wait. If you don’t wait for them to rest, you may as well have had cheeseburgers instead.

While the steaks are resting, keep the juices/butter/garlic bubbling in the pan, you can cook it down and spoon it over the steaks when you’re ready to serve them. I say you CAN cook it down, but I mean you MUST, because if you don’t you’re a total nut.

Now listen. I had every intention of taking pretty pre-eating steak pictures, but I didn’t, and remembered halfway through eating to take a picture, because Dom reminded me.

please disregard the fact that it is half eaten

This steak was REALLY good.  It was tender, with a nice crust on the outside, flavorful and well, beefy.  I’ve eaten a fair bit of steak in my life, and cooked a fair bit of steak myself as well, and I know for a fact that the two most important things in the process are 1. don’t move it around once it’s on the heat and 2. LET IT REST.  This episode of steak cooking also taught me that undercooking steak is the right choice, especially because you let it rest, which allows for some extra cooking time.  But really- why I never thought of basting a steak with melted butter while it was cooking is a complete mystery.  Also, something I thought of that would likely be totally delicious is adding a slug or two of good red wine in with the melted butter.  I made some pretty middle of the road but tasty sides with it, garlic mashed potatoes (again, not shy with the butter and cream) and green beans, which I dressed with caramelized onions, and a quick vinaigrette of apple cider vinegar, brown mustard and honey.

There was, by the way, no leftover steak.

-Cat