Thaw it first. Are we talking about fresh meat that was frozen out of preservation, or boxes of steakums from the grocery store? Either way, this is how restaurants cook a steak: 1. Grill about one minute on each side, then turn 90 degrees and grill another minute on each side. This is called "marking the steak." That's how you get those nice, symmetrical, grid-like marks on a restaurant steak. 1a. Like @Xoic said earlier, you can also hard sear the steak in a pan. That is known as a "Pittsburgh" steak, which ignores the grill entirely. 2. Put the steak on a sizzle plate in a 500 degree oven (or higher if possible... some joints use infrared ovens that rip at over 1000 degrees, I think) with a big dollop of butter and a few sprigs of thyme for aromatics. That's how we do it, at least. Then you cook the steak to just under your desired temperature. About 10 degrees or so. And the temperature of a steak is a for real temperature... the color of the meat is incidental and will vary across cuts. The trick to remembering that is to start at 120 and at 10 for each step. So: Rare: 120 - 125 Med Rare: 130 - 135 Medium: 140 - 145 Med Well: 150 - 155 Well Done: 160+ There are basic guidelines for how many minutes are necessary to achieve the desired temperature, but those vary widely between cuts of meat and thickness. 3. Rest the steak. The juices need time to redistribute throughout the cut so they don't spill out like a head wound when you cut into it. And in a restaurant, there are other dishes that need to be cleared to sell the ticket, so for timing purposes, we've been known to rest steaks for up to 10 minutes if necessary. That's why it's good to pull the steak a few degrees early. ETA: whoops, forget to mention that you should rub the steak in some herbed oil first and blanket it with salt and pepper on both sides. We also finish our steaks with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt flakes upon plating.
Before I went vegetarian, I cooked like that all the time, minus the steak stuff because I have never liked steak. But I'd make as much from scratch as I could. I make substitutes for vegetarian options now, but the "meatballs" are always dry and there's no way to mimic that really, unless I used frozen coconut oil... Hmmmmmmm... They make butter flavored coconut oil these days, so I might try some tvp meatballs with bits of frozen coconut oil in so it keeps things happy when I bake them. What were we talking about? Oh right! Making food. I'm considering making a decision to spend more money on delivery. I'll eat better next week. I say as I think about how close to Panera I'll be.
I actually like oats in my meatballs. I don't use Italian herbs, though, more just onion and garlic, then cover in a brown sugar/apple butter barbeque sauce and serve over rice with grilled veggies.
Trichinosis and/or botulism don't really count as positive things in the cooking world. But seriously? That sounds like a great recipe, I'll have to give it a shot.
I've made one or two cry in my day. My favorite line is, "Did they teach you how to count in culinary school?" It's all in good fun. Most of the time. Chefs are like puppies: they need discipline, excercise, and affection... in that order.
Some of my appetite is back. I might cook the Thai marinated salmon in the freezer. Not fancy but yummy.
Steaming whole Dorado on green onions and garlic (also stuffed inside) in a fish-based soy sauce, and glazing it after heated oil to bring out the flavor. Bok Choy pan-fried with a soy sauce in a wok on the side. Served over white rice.
Made my potato salad yesterday, and gave a third of it to my elderly neighbour. Still have some left over for today. It's my comfort food. I'm not a cheffy kind of cook. I'm a 'mom' kind of cook. But I do love all kinds of food. I've learned to cook Indian and Pakistani food since moving to Scotland, and our spice cupboard is WELL stocked. I also love middle eastern food, eastern European food (Polish, Hungarian—big fan of good paprika, sauerkraut, etc) and Greek food. I can cook Chinese, but don't do that as often as I used to. Thai? Like it, but don't love it, so don't cook it a lot. Not a huge fan of everything tasting like coconut. I do like coconut, but not all the time. Hell, I just love to cook AND eat. I don't eat a lot of meat, but I'm not a vegetarian either. I tend to eat meat in stews and as part of another dish (like in a curry) rather than a roast, steak, etc. You can get great Indian food here in Scotland, in restaurants. But it's not quite the same as cooking your own. The restaurants basically make up the very tasty sauces, then briefly cook the chosen meat in the chosen sauce after it's ordered by the customer. Making it at home means the meat and the sauces get cooked together, slowly, over low heat for a long time. The difference is worth the time and effort. Also, if you cook it at home, you can adjust the amount of chili in each sauce. I like chili, but I don't want it blowing my head off either. Less is more, in my opinion, when it comes to chilies. I like the flavour more than the heat.
If you want to transcend time and space, try the 1 hour noodle: It is next level savory. I honestly think it is my favorite dish.
If you don't have the soy bean paste, put 1 onion, a generous splash of soy sauce, chili and garlic in a blender and blend into a fine sludge. Then reduce it on low heat until it becomes pasty and dry. Mix it in with the minced pork. It's not a flavor you're likely to have tried before but it is beyond good.
I just happen to have some mince pork in the freezer. What I don't have at the moment are the noodles ...oh, wait, maybe I do. I'll check. It's definitely one I'm planning to try. I don't have the paste (and won't be able to get any of it now) but I can certainly come up with a bit of a substitute. I think I have some black bean sauce somewhere.
Broccoli rabe and sausage over penne pasta. Super easy. Garlic and oil to start, brown the sausage, deglaze with white wine, add a little butter and chicken stock. You should parboil the rabe first. About 4 mins. I skipped the white beans, but those work good too.
I see you got your bottle of Bombay East in the back, haha. My liquor rep sent me one when you gave me that bloody mary recipe a while back. It came out really good, but my owner shot it down. Said nobody drinks blood marys (maries?) at dinner anymore, which is true, but it doesn't hurt to have a good house mix on hand either way. Not a battle I was going to fight with him. Poor prick is going to lose about $2 million by the time this is done. Would have been more like $1.5 if he'd listen to me more, but whatever. ETA: what else you got hiding on your shelf there? Let's see, let's see... I see a jigger and a muddler... that's good... helps insure proper liquor cost... what else... some spices, not bad, should be using fresh herbs, but maybe you got those in the fridge.
