I guess I’m out of it today, thus, I’m going to make an “out of it” post about one of my favorites: food. For the longest time, I’ve cooked steak on a foreman grill or the open charcoal grill without any prep work for the steak. I must admit, although its edible, its not really that good by any means. Over the past few months, I’ve perfected my steak cooking methods.
Normally, the steak I use is a cheaper, fattier cut that says “great for grilling“. I normally buy it on sale for a 2/3 bucks a pound and freeze it until I’m ready to grill it. Unlike most professional cooks, I don’t really feel like marinating my steak for days prior to cooking, and I normally can’t remember to bring it out of the freezer until 2 hours before I know I’m going to want to cook it.
Because of my timing for thawing my steak, I normally pull it out of the freezer and about 10 minutes before I’m going to cook it, I take a little milk and drip it over the top. I then put it on a microwave safe plate and defrost the meat for about 8 minutes on 40% power (our Microwave is a 1500watt oven). After my steak comes out of the microwave, its much easier to work with. While my steak is thawing, I grab a deep rectangular oven pan (about 13″x8″x2″) and line it with tin foil. I then spray nonstick pam to it.
I now use scissors to cut the meat and remove the fat. I have a pair of school scissors that I dedicated to meat a while ago. I put these scissors in almost boiling water for a while when they were brand new to sterilize them. To get back to it, my goal is to cut the steak up into bite size chunks and place them into the pan as a single layer starting in the center and working my way out.
I aim to cut off most of the visible fat. I do this because the fat hardens and darkens during cooking, making it hard to cut with a knife after cooking. The fat also isn’t good for my health (I have enough fat elsewhere every day) so I don’t mind removing it. I also find steak fat to be disgusting to taste and swallow.
After my initial cutting, I now have a pan full of raw steak ready to cook, and another pile of fat (and some hard to cut steak). I normally throw this fat to the birds out back (they really love it). So now its time to prep the steak to make it taste really good!
I first add just a touch of meat tenderizer. This is a spice that soaks into the meat and makes it more tender. I then add a gracious layer of casian spice. This adds a little tang and makes your mouth water when you put it in your mouth. On top of those, I then add basil leafs and parsley. All and all, when the steak is done, these soak mostly into the steak and are hardly visible (except for the basil). I then add a little water to the sides (so it covers the steak about half the height), the water will take the blood out during cooking and tell you if you are cooking it too fast! Remember, I’m not a bloody steak fan, but I hate dry steak too.
Cooking the steak:
Charcoal / Outside Propane Grill Method:
- Now I take that pan and put it on a very low heat on the grill (propane with charcoal on the sides that burn ever so slightly). I leave the steak on the grill in the pan for a good half hour. By now the water should be boiling but not that violently. The steak should also start looking done. Basically when the water is almost gone (about 1/4 of what it was), the steak should be done. A good way to test is see how chewy it is. If its really chewy, it probably needs another 10 minutes or so. If its not too chewy but not too hard, its done
Oven Method (for when its raining, or you’re lazy):
- I usually set the oven to preheat to 300F. I then place the steak and pan into the oven. About 35 minutes later, I check up on the steak. If it looks well done, its probably done, but I usually do a taste test (the blood will be out of it by now and the water should be about 1/4 of what it was). If its really chewy, it probably needs another 10 minutes or so. If its not too chewy but not too hard, its done
Now you can clean up the pans and enjoy your steak without a knife! I also have a weird taste bud where I like to dip it into a ketchup/mustard mixture, I think it tastes good, but you might argue with me. Either with the sauce or without it, I still find the steak really tasty and edible.
Here are some photos of steak I did on the grill earlier today It was also very good and not bloody!
Thanks for posting about this, I would love to read more about this topic.