Some of us are more meat and potatoes oriented. I try not to eat red meat very often. I really love and sometimes crave it…so maybe I’ll indulge once a month. Steak is very simple to prepare. You just have to know how to do it right. I prefer prime rib because it is well marbled with fat and not a majorly used muscle, therefore it is quite juicy and tender. That is unless it is poorly raised or overcooked.
I have prepared and tasted steaks from west to east. Don’t have a major preference. There are many ways to cook a steak. You can throw it on the barbie or you can broil it. MY favourite way is to use my cast iron pan to sear it and then finish it off to medium rare in a 350 degree F oven. The purists like to only season their steaks with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper…but I like to douce mine with a healthy dose of good quality barbecue sauce. Most often I prefer to prepare one of my own sauces. I enjoy the salty peppery caramelized sugar of the sauce as it gets sticky all over the meat. The bone is my favourite part of any meat. I’ll take a plate of bones over a sizeable piece of meat any day. That is why prime rib steak is my favourite. Take the bone for yourself and share the meat with your partner. Only want da bones? Just ask your meat department or friendly neighbourhood butcher if they have some prime rib bones on hand. It’s all about the meaty bone for me.
Prime rib steak…bone on… sauced up! Sides: sauteed purple cabbage, golden beets, and potato salad
Here’s my method for cooking steak:
First choose meat that is bright red in colour and marbled well with white fat. Shouldn’t be slimy to the touch. Not too soft and not too firm. Buy a thick cut 11/2 to 2 inches.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat an ovenproof heavy bottomed fry pan with good heat conductors…like aluminum or copper embedded. My pan of choice for this purpose is a cast iron pan. Heat your stove element to medium high.
Then sprinkle both sides liberally with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Do this just before you are going to sear. If you put the salt on too early, it will drain the meat of it’s juices. It may be dry.
Sear until the first side of meat (the muscle) wants to release from the pan. It will not budge until it’s ready to flip. People sometimes try to coerce it and end up ripping it, leaving the stuck on meat to burn.
Repeat on the other side. Flip only once. Otherwise the meat may dry out.
Once the steak is seared, about 1 minute per side, apply the barbecue sauce to both sides.
If you don’t want your steak blue, roast in the same pan to medium or medium rare in the preheated oven for about 5 or 10 minutes until desired doneness. You can tell it is cooked by the juices rising to the top. It is ready when the sauce is bubbly and the juice is a rising!
Take out of oven. Let it rest in the pan to redistribute its juices for about 5 to 10 minutes. When you cut into the steak, the juices are in the steak not on the plate.
My Method for cooking prime rib bones:
Roasted Beef Bones with insanely delicious organic golden flesh sweet potatoes; panfried in evoo.
Just da bone…sauced up. Sides: Sauteed Swiss chard, grape tomatoes, crimini mushrooms and roasted potatoes.
Preheat oven to 350 degress F.
Line a roasting pan with foil.
Sprinkle the bones liberally with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Douce on both sides with barbecue sauce, optional.
And roast for up to 30 minutes until desired doneness.
Try this Barbecue sauce (great for chicken or wings too!):
Smokey Spicy and Sticky BBQ Sauce Approx. 3 ½ cups
1 small onion 2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 cups ketchup 1/3 cup white wine vinegar 1 cup dark molasses 1 teaspoon chipotle pepper flakes 1 teaspoon smokey sweet paprika 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground mace 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Coarse Kosher salt to taste ½ cup honey Hot sauce to taste, optional
In a saucepan over medium heat sweat onion until soft, add garlic and sauté for a minute.
Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer on a medium low heat.
As soon as the molasses dissolves, the sauce is ready to add the honey and hot sauce (optional).
Heat through until thick and reduced.