How to cook the perfect steak
A basic outline for producing a restaurant-quality steak.
To start, remember not to jump the gun! Before you grab your pan and pepper, let your steak sit outside the fridge for at least an hour. Once your steak has been brought to room temperature, you can start warning up your frying pan and seasoning the steak.
Rub the steak with a drizzle of olive oil and season well with salt and black pepper. You want to do this right before it goes into the pan. If left for too long the salt will draw all the moisture out the meat making it tough and chewy.
Next, make sure your pan is hot before trying to cook the steak; you want to hear that sweet sizzling sound as it slides onto the pan. Cooking time is dependent on your preference, but for a Medium rare steak; cook for approximately 6 minutes, turning it every minute so it cooks through evenly. During the last two minutes, add 2 cloves of garlic, a sprig of thyme or rosemary, and a good knob of butter. As the butter starts to melt, tilt the pan and bast the steak in all those glorious juices.
Now, here is where you either make or break your steak. Once cooked to satisfaction, remove it from the heat and LET IT REST IN PEACE. This means, do not cover it, do not poke and prod it, do not slice it, don’t even look at it. Go get yourself a drink and wait because this where the magic happens. As it rests all the juices are slowly seeping into every crevice of the steak, distributing all the flavours evenly. A good rule of thumb here is to rest it for as long as you cooked it.