Since it is release week for You Can Leave Your Boots On, I thought I would bestir myself to write my own #FoodieFriday post featuring something from the book. Bo loves a Porterhouse. That sounded good.
There are lots of methods for cooking steak on the interwebz, including this crazy freeze-fry method, which sounded like way too much effort. Hmmm… maybe I could get Bones to do this for me instead of actually doing my own work. (Have we discussed how lazy I am?) This turned out to be the easy part. Like Travis, I don’t often offer to bring home 2 lb chunks of red meat – Bones couldn’t quite pull off blasé as he agreed. You know, as a favor. Just because he loves me.
Bones:
This is a simple method for cooking almost any steak and it doesn’t require a grill.
- olive oil
- 2 lb porterhouse steak
- salt
- black pepper
- red pepper
- minced garlic
- butter (about a tablespoon)
First bring the steak to room temperature. This is a large, bone-in cut, so allow up to an hour for this.
Heat the oven to 325 F.
When you are ready to cook, start by patting the steak dry. It won’t sear properly otherwise. Rub the steak with olive oil.
Salt and pepper one side of the steak. I use finely ground sea salt and coarse-ground fresh black pepper.
On the other side rub the garlic and sprinkle very lightly with red pepper. Then salt and pepper that side too. Don’t go too heavy on the garlic and red pepper. You really want to taste the steak, not the seasoning.
Put just enough olive oil in the bottom of the cast iron skillet to coat. Heat on medium-high heat until just before it smokes. An easy way to test is to flick a few drops of water into the pan from your fingers. If it immediately sizzles, you are ready to cook.
Sear the meat, one side at a time, to a dark brown. Use tongs to turn the meat and sear the sides.
Now drop your pat of butter on top and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for about 15 minutes for medium-rare, a little longer if you like your steak more well done. The time will vary, so you will need to test. You can use a meat thermometer, but if you don’t want to keep poking holes in your steak a simple touch test will work. A good method is the cheek-chin-forehead method. The steak I cooked for this post took about 18 minutes.
Take the steak out of the oven and let it rest for eight minutes. (I know. It looks delicious, doesn’t it? It’s hard to wait.) If you’re lucky, your partner is a writer who wrote a scene with this steak that included wine. I’m very lucky. We have a nice Malbec to compliment our steak. Go ahead and pour a glass. If they’ve insisted on any green things as garnish, try to make sure the veg doesn’t take up too much room on the plate and detract from the steak. Relationship tip: Make conversation and try to look at your partner at least as much as the steak.
When eight minutes are up…
EAT THE STEAK!
