No controversy - just eat what you like how you like!
Friday night = steak night in our house. For me a steak meal is a little bit special - a highlight of the week. So since having the Kamado Joe we have tried quite a few variations.
The meat:
Mostly we buy rump - our butcher ages it for circa 20 days & the flavour is great & we've decided we prefer it compred to sirloin or fillet. But we do enjoy a T-bone every now and then. But it is hard to justify the extra cost over a simple rump cut.
For special occasions, we have tried rib roasts after having one in a restaurant that was very good - but you're talking £30+ for a 2 rib joint - albeit that will feed four with some left overs. We've only done 3 of these but each time they were great & our guests have really appreciated them.
Level of 'done-ness':
I actually like two levels. Either:
- my normal is a good char on the outside & then rare in the middle. Or:
- medium - well done.
How to cook:
[list=] - make sure the steak is out of the fridge for a few hours prior to cooking;
- a little salt & pepper right before cooking;
- For steaks under an inch in thickness, we get the Kamado as high as we can (600F or higher), & grill each side for between 30 seconds & a minute depending on temperature & thickness of the steak, remove & rest for 5-10 minutes in foil - experience has shown this gives us a good rare steak with some nice charing;
- For thicker steaks or rib joints, get the Kamado up high, sear each side to get the colour & flavour on the outside, then leave on the grill but shut down the vents & let it cook as you would in an oven. I have read recently that this can give you too much of a smokey flavour & what you should do is actually take the rib / steak off after the sear, get the Kamado to temperature (around 400F seems to be the consensus) & then put it back on & cook indirectly to the desired level of done-ness. I will try this method when I get my remote temperature probe as I don't like to keep opening the dome to test the temperature.[/list]
The only rubs I've tried on steak is Butt Rub & Dukka (a Jordanian pepper / coriander mix). Prefer just simple salt & pepper but Dukka is a close second.
Sauce? I do like a little ketchup
But have also been trying the Stubbs range - really liking these especially as they have very little rubbish in them. A simple home-made pepper sauce is pretty hard to beat though.
We have a cast iron searing grid for use on the hob, but we much prefer the additional flavour that cooking over charcoal gives. I am going to get a small cast iron grid to see if it tastes even better cooking on this nearer to the charcoal.
As an aside, if anyone doubts why you should rest a steak, Heston's current series (How to cook like Heston - Series 1 Episode 1 - Beef) he gives a really good practical demonstration of why you should rest beef (a steak in this case) after cooking. You can still view this on Channel 4's website if you missed it.
A nice piece of aged fillet, seasoned with S&P or seasoned salt & pepper (I use my own recipe Naughty salt) pan fried, somewhere between blue and rare with some banana shallots in the pan. Then as it rests, deglaze the pan with marsala, a splash of cognac and some cream. For me, steak doesn't get better than that.
