I cooked the perfect steak last night. I invited a friend over for dinner who I had put on a very low carbohydrate diet. I wanted to demonstrate that low carb eating can be glorious even without the bread, pasta, rice and other grains.
To get inspired about what to make for dinner, I had been surfing around my favourite food sites when I came across this on Serious Eats - The Food Lab: More Tips for Perfect Steaks.
It seems I had been cooking my meat wrong all this time. I used to season the meat and throw it in the pan for 3-5 minutes then flip for another 2-4 minutes, depending on the thickness. I like it rare, while Barb likes it medium rare to (gasp) medium. Well, not this time.
This time, I thoroughly salted both sides of our rib eyes and let them sit at room temperature for 2 hours. I then heated a little oil in the pan to medium-high heat and seared the meat for a minute on each side. I then flipped them every 30 seconds for a total cooking time on 5 1/2 minutes for me, 5 3/4 for out guest and 6 minutes for Barb. Oh my. The steaks turned out more succulent and flavourful than anything I can remember cooking before.
The steaks were from Frank & Mirella Digenova at Butcher By Nature on 520 Anette St., Toronto. So I've always shopped with them for my meat, because one of the basics to great meals are great ingredients.
The steaks were complemented by a crunchy, spicy salad I found in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" iPad app. I calculated the salad had about about 5g of carb - mostly from the lime juice in the vinaigrette.
We then finished off with a cheese plate of an award winning raw cow's milk cheese from Quebec, a firm and mild blue-veined goat's milk, and a firm sheep's milk cheese. With a carb count of approximately 1g per ounce, we had a total of 4g of carbs here. I get my cheeses from the Junction Fromagerie, on 3042 Dundas St. W., Toronto.
Low carbs and hedonism, together at last.
