How to Cook and Serve the Perfect Steak

Buying Your Steak
When you are shopping buy the best quality cut of meat you can afford and buy it from a reputable butcher who you can trust to source the finest meat possible. You should become familiar with all the different types of steak available whether it is filet mignon, sirloin, ribeye or T-bone and now what to look for when making your purchase.

A great steak should have a degree of marbling which is basically fat within the tissue of the meat. Do not buy bright red steak, the colour should be a darker red which indicates that the steak has matured correctly. The ideal thickness for a steak is 1'' - 1.5" which will ensure that the steak does not dry out during the cooking process.

Preparation
Let your steak reach room temperature before you start to cook it. Take the steak out of the refrigerator anything from 30 minutes to one hour prior to cooking. This will allow for the steak to cook as evenly as possible because the internal temperature will have been raised before exposing the outside surface to a hot pan.

Lightly pat the steak with kitchen towel to ensure that it is completely dry, this will ensure that the steak grills and not steams. Additionally, do not salt the steak before cooking as this will induce moisture on its surface and it will be steamed.

Cooking Your Steaks
Using dry heat is probably the best way to cook a steak and for me this entails using a specially designed steak or ridged grill pan over a high heat. This will cause the outside of the steak to brown nicely and give it that distinctive flavour. Make sure that the pan is extremely hot before putting the steak into it, in fact the pan should be smoking a little bit.

Cook the steaks on each side for 5 minutes for rare, 7 minutes for medium and 10 minutes for well done. Be aware that cooking times can vary depending on the thickness of your steak and how hot the pan is, the above are general guidelines so you may need to experiment a little bit until you find how to cook the steak to your exact liking.

Turn your steaks using tongs and give them a nudge now and again with the tongs to ensure they do not stick to the pan. Halfway through the cooking time per side turn your steaks trough 90 degrees, this will give nice diamond pattern grill marks.

Serving Your Steaks
Once the steaks are cooked to your liking, whether that means nice and pink on the inside for rare or burnt to a crisp for the well done faction, remove them from the pan and place on a plate and loosely cover with aluminum foil, the steaks will continue to cook on the inside. The majority of cooks ignore this very important part of the process. Let the steak rest for about five minutes prior to serving.

I prefer to eat my steak accompanied by real home made chunky french fries with salt and vinegar, some lightly steamed green beans or roasted asparagus and a nice fresh salad made with lettuce, onions and tomatoes covered in homemade french dressing. Mmmm, bon apetit!

Peter S. Kelly is passionate about good food and drink, cooking on his ceramic hob and all things kitchen related. For more information please visit http://www.electriccookersceramichob.com

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