I have been a nearly vegan for just over six weeks now, no meat except fish, no dairy. I’ve not been super strict about it and have slightly faltered a couple of times but on the whole my diet has improved loads and I have reduced my saturated fat intake by a significant amount. As it is mainly health reasons that have caused me to adopt this diet I am this evening going to enjoy a treat, STEAK. Here is how I cook my steak.
Ingredients
1 10oz ribeye steak (one that has been hung for at least three weeks)
1 big clove of garlic
1 Splash of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp veg oil
1 knob of butter
1 portion of Alphabites/Smiles/Waffles
1 big handful of Spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
oh and some nice red wine 😀
Ribeye, it is the perfect combo of tasty and tender. In a big steak like this you might find (depending on where the in the joint it is cut from) a big white lump of fat. First thing to do is to cut that out, finely chop it and smush (best word) it into the steak. If you left it in you wouldn’t eat it and the middle wouldn’t render down to impart any of its flavour, this way your steak is mega tasty. Next I finely chop my garlic, and drop a teeny splash of olive oil onto each side of the steak to rub in with the garlic. Then pop it in a sandwich bag in the fridge for a couple of hours to do its thing.
Get the steak out of the fridge 20 minutes or so before you cook it to get it up to room temperature, and pre-heat your oven to whatever it says on the packet of your chosen potato shapes. The reason I’ve opted for smiles or their equivalent is that I could try to make my own chips, or go with some fancy herby new potatoes, but these really are dead crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle and you don’t have to do anything. You can take the man out of Morecambe but you can’t take the Morecambe out of the man. Anyway, oven’s on, steak’s warming up, now is the time to season. Adding salt earlier on would release too much moisture from the steak, not good. Be liberal with the salt, a good idea is to put loads of salt and pepper on a plate and then lightly press the steak into it.
When the carbs have about 12 mins to go get a pan on the heat, and get it super hot. I have a mini le cruset iron skillet, it is non stick and really retains heat well but any heavy non-stick pan will do. Pour 1 tsp of veg oil into the pan and about the same of butter, and when the butter starts to foam place the steak in. The best way about it is to use lobster style tongs to manhandle your beef, making sure that you first sear all the edges. I’d give it about 2-3 minutes each side, that is for medium rare. With fillet I am a rare steak man all the way but the fat marbling in ribeye needs chance to melt, otherwise you end up with a tender bite but not a very nice mouth feel.
Once it is done to your liking pop it on the plate, pour any juices over the top and place a small knob of butter on top while it rests. You need to leave it to rest for about 5 minutes so that the proteins can relax and the fat/juice that has melted inside the meat can distribute evenly. Take this time to quickly dress your spinach. A dash of the old extra v, a good dose of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon are all it needs.
Bish bash bosh, done!
PS: Oh yeah I didn’t finish, put the alphasmaffles on the plate with the salad, pour a glass of the wine and feel like king of the world!
PPS: Don’t forget to spell out words like “steak” or “beef” with the alphabites hahaha
What a lovely macaroon! 