Saturday, June 03, 2006
Steak Two Ways: Halibut and Beef Loin
After today's rather hefty lunch, Lofty and I decided to take it easy at dinnertime. Lofty opted for a grilled halibut steak and his share of the scallops with garlic butter.For the halibut:I had a carpaccio of smoked cod with a side salad,
2 tbsp olive oil
1 halibut steak, about 2cm thick
To serve:
4 to 6 (depending on size) baby potatoes
scallops in garlic butter (as many as you can eat and afford)
a small green salad
oil and vinegar for the salad
salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges
Put the potatoes in a saucepan that is just big enough to hold them in a single layer. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Cook until tender, about 12 to 15 minutes.
In the meantime heat the oil in a shallow frying man over medium heat. Add the halibut and fry until the underside is golden, about 4 minutes. Do not disturb for at least 1 minute to allow the brown caramelised crust to form. Turn and fry the other side until golden and the fish is cooked, about another 3 to 4 minutes. Keep in a warm place while you prepare the scallops.
While the fish is cooking, arrange some greed leaves on a side plate and dress with a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Arrange the fish on a plate with the scallops and potatoes, drizzle with the garlic butter and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with the salad and some lemon wedges on the side.
a definite favourite on a sunny (almost) summer's evening.My mum on the other hand had had a reasonably light dinner and real cravings for some good Irish beef.
Strangely enough, the whole idea of buying local has not yet reached southern Germany and even the most expensive fine food stores mostly import their beef from South America. I think this is ludicrous all round; rainforest is chopped down to create pasture for cows that are then shipped half way across the globe. The poor locals gain nothing and lose their beautiful environment, for the soil, not appropriate for cattle farming, is soon depleted and turns into wasteland. And in Europe, farmers, faced with cheap competition from abroad, turn to unsustainable mass production using everything you never needed in your food from growth hormones to antibiotics just to make a quick buck and are often rewarded by the EU for keeping their cattle in appalling conditions. For, did you know?, small farmers are often exempt from those lovely subsidies we all pay dearly to sustain even though they are the ones who do what the EU claims to want to encourage: Keep our countryside beautiful, enhance diversity of species and preserve old traditions for future generations. So I am delighted to see that the Irish are not only aware, but proud of the quality of local meat and I am more than happy to pay a little extra to keep it available to all of us.
But let's get back to dinner. My mum is leaving tomorrow, so her last chance to have her steak was tonight. I served it quite plain - pan-fried medium with scallops, potatoes and a side salad - in order to let the flavour of the meat speak for itself. All you need to recreate this simple dinner is a nice cut of meat, a bit of oil and a relatively large, good quality pan.
Remove the steak from the fridge at least 30 minutes befIf all this seems dauntingly complicated to you now, you are not alone. Remember, I was a complete vegetarian until about a year ago and still do not eat steak. The first few times I tried to make steak, it was all a case of hit and miss. But the most important thing is not to be intimidated and trust you sense of touch. Keep testing the meat and when it feels right, pull it out. You're lucky if you like you steak medium. This is probably the easiest way to get right - enough cooking time to heat it through and to let you test it a few times, but not long enough to get it tough. So start with that and, if need be, work your way up towards rare.ore cooking. It wants to be at room temperature when it goes into the pan in order to guarantee that it will cook evenly right through rather than burning on the outside and remaining cold on the inside.
Heat the oil (depending on the size of your pan 1 to 2 tablespoons) in a large frying pan over medium high heat. (Make sure your pan is big and shallow enough that the moisture from the steak can evaporate. You want to fry, not steam it.) When the oil is quite hot - almost smoking - add your meat. Cook without disturbing until a brown sticky crust forms, about 1 to 2 minutes. (I have talked about this process that is so often claimed to "seal in the juices" before. There is no such thing as sealing meat juices; the purpose of searing the surface is to caramelise the sugars in the meat, which produces that lovely 'grilled' flavour.) Turn the steak over and sear the other side. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, depending on the thickness, the cut of meat (steaks with bones will take longer) and your heat source, until you reach the desired doneness. (You can find a comprehensive, albeit slightly confusing, cooking chart for beef here) I had a boneless piece of meat, about 2 to 2½cm thick on an electric stove, so my cooking times were as follows:If you want to make sure the steaks are really done to your liking and have no thermometer available to check the chefy way, use the pressure test. When you are getting close to having a done steak press it with your index finger or a fork to get a feel for it. A rare steak will be soft, a medium steak firm but yielding and a well-done steak will be firm.
- 2 minutes on each side for rare
- 4 minutes on each side for medium (this is what I chose, so after searing the steak for 2 minutes on each side, I gave it another 2 minutes cooking time on each side before removing it from the pan.)
- 6 minutes on each side for well done
Allow the steak to rest 2 to 3 minutes in a warm place before serving it. This will ensure the juices are distributed evenly throughout the meat.
Christine at 10:56 pm
