Monday, November 14, 2011

Cooking: Rosemary Garlic Steak

One of the perks of living in NYC is the endless selection of new restaurants to check out.  The downside, however, is that everything costs moneymoneymoney.  Feeling ambitious, this piggy decided to make her own fancy steak dinner for two, budget style!

One of my favorite food bloggers Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen (recommended to me by Piggy KL!) recently posted a recipe for Rosemary Garlic Steak.  It looked simple enough for me to tackle so I decided to give it a go (with some minor adaptions to the recipe by yours truly).  Let’s see how I did, shall we?

Ingredients
2 Steaks (approx ½ pound per person/steak is what I aimed for)
¼ cup olive oil
6 (or more) cloves garlic, thinly sliced
6 sprigs rosemary
Salt and pepper

Step 1: Buying and prepping the steak
The meat department at the grocery store is definitely not an area that I'm comfortable roaming through.  After staring aimlessly at all the different cuts of meat (and trying not to gag), I finally asked someone for help.  The butcher man behind the counter recommended two cuts of grass-fed sirloin steaks.  Or was it NY strip steaks?  Aish I don’t remember…either way it was $16.99 a pound and my mother likes to remind me that I overpaid.  But they were nice and red, lean looking (the way I prefer my meat), and just the size I was looking for.

I prepped the steaks the Steamy Kitchen way: salt the steak like crazy on both sides with Kosher salt for about an hour before cooking. This will help tenderize the meat.  [Steamy Kitchen has a GREAT post here with more info and pics on her steak prep method.]

Prepping the steak - saltsaltsalt!


Watching the salt as it tenderizes the steaks...
Don’t worry about eating a salt-lick steak – after letting the salt sit for an hour rinse the steaks thoroughly to rid the salt (along with the water that the salt drew out), pat very dry, and then season them the way you like for eating (I like salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper on both sides of the steak).  
 
My rinsed and seasoned steaks - ready to go!

Step 2: Cook up your now fabulous cuts of steak
With your prepped and seasoned steak ready to go, heat up a fry pan until its super hot.  You can use a little olive oil or butter in the pan with the steak.  I personally use grape seed oil when I cook since it has similar “good oil” benefits as olive oil but has a higher smoke point and neutral taste when compared with olive oil (read more about grape seed oil here). 

Lay the steaks in the pan with sides not touching.  Cook on both sides to your liking and then remove to a plate to rest. 


I love the sizzling of a steak in the pan!
Step 3: Make the rosemary garlic oil
Take 6 or more garlic cloves of garlic and slice them thin.  I love garlic so I used 9-10 cloves – the more the merrier!  In a clean pan, turn the heat to medium-low and add your ¼ cup of oil (I used grape seed oil again here, but feel free to use olive oil).  Immediately add the garlic and rosemary sprigs so that they release their flavor as the oil heats. 

Fresh garlic slices and rosemary sprigs heating up in oil. I can still smell it mmmm...

Once the garlic starts to brown at the edges, put the cooked steaks into the pan and smother both sides of the steaks with the rosemary garlic oil.  

My steaks smothered in rosemary garlic oil!

Step 4: Eat and enjoy!
Serve the steak with garlic slices, rosemary, and now fragrant olive oil drizzled on top.   Add a couple side dishes to round out the meal.  I made ginger scallion fried rice (also another great Steamy Kitchen recipe – post to follow soon!) and simple roasted brussel sprouts. 

Dinner Time!
My table setting may not be designer, but the food was still tasty and quickly devoured!
 Voila!  An uncomplicated and fantastic home cooked meal – totally doable and totally tasty.  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading – Piggy KK

1 comment: