Steak! Steak! We Love Steak!

Craving a steak?

Bill and I love steak! However, we have been satisfying our need for red meat with hand-formed (by me), 80/20 ground chuck patties. But finally, the urge for juicy, hot, rare to medium rare steak overcame my resolve to stretch our food bucks.

This is how it happened: 

1. I was pushing the shopping cart through the beef section of the local market.
2.  Almost simultaneously, a packaged pair of beautiful, rib eye steaks caught my attention; AND I saw a SALE sign fastened to the shelf edge under the packaged steak pairs. 
3. My self-talk went like this,"$13.36 for two 16 oz. rib eyes is cheap. That is less than a steak dinner at  C's Steakhouse. Why, that is only about $6.50 each for supper. What a bargain!" 
4. The red, marbled perfection of each steak smashed the weakened wall of my budgeting resolve into splinters. Swiftly, I grabbed and put a packaged pair of glorious, rib eye steaks into the shopping cart.
5. My traitorous brain was chanting, "Steak for dinner! Rib eye steak for dinner!"  I could hardly wait to get home and start preparing those gorgeous rib eyes.

I know you have done this too, so don't try to act innocent. All of us talk ourselves into buying things because the sign says,"SALE."

Grilling and broiling are popular ways to cook steak, but I pan fry my steaks. Okay, get the look of horror off of your face! 

Steaks taste marvelous when you prep them correctly and pan fry them in butter. 

The advantages of pan frying steaks in butter are:

• No grill of any kind is needed.
• No messy charcoal. 
• No charcoal lighter is required
• No flames burning your steak.
• No hot oven. 
• No unwieldy broiler pan. 
• AND a rare to medium rare steak is done in three to four minutes . Steak is the perfect fast food. 

Have I convinced you to try pan frying your steaks in butter?

Good. Now, it is time to cook a pair of juicy, tender steaks to rare or medium rare perfection.

Equipment

• a meat mallet
• a large nonstick skillet

Ingredients

• 2  cold rib eye, porterhouse, or New York strip steaks; sliced 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick
• meat tenderizer
• garlic powder (optional)
• chili powder (optional)
• rainbow peppercorn blend in a pepper mill
• fine sea salt
• 2-3 Tbsp. salted butter

Directions

Have your side dishes prepared. Your cold steaks will only need to cook for three to four minutes each.

First, set the cold steaks on top of a piece of wax paper, or aluminum foil.
Then, apply meat tenderizer following the directions on the container.
Next, apply desired amount of seasoning to top side of the steaks.

Using the course side of a meat mallet, the side shown in picture,
gently beat the seasoning into the steak, or steaks.
Repeat seasoning on the other side of the steak. Gently beat the
seasoning into the steak.
I try not to thin the steaks more than 1/3 - 1/2 of the original thickness

A perfectly seasoned and tenderized rib eye ready to go
into a hot, nonstick skillet.

Place 2 Tbsp. of butter into a large, nonstick skillet that is
over medium high heat. On my gas range, I use the
high output burner and set the flame on 7. When the butter is melted
and browning put a steak in the pan.

Bill likes rare steak, so I always cook his first. Immediately after
placing the steak into the hot skillet, set a timer for two minutes.
Check at one minute and if the steak is nicely browned like the one below
turn to the other side. If the skillet is getting too hot, turn the
heat to 6, but no lower or your steak will not cook correctly.

When the 2 minute timer goes off, reset timer for 1 more minute.
Check bottom of steak and if it looks like the picture above,
turn it over and continue cooking.
Immediately remove steak to a plate when the 1 minute timer goes off.
  

• Let the rare steak rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

• If you are cooking a second steak, add 1 Tbsp. butter to the skillet and allow it to melt and begin browning. Then add your second steak.
• For a medium rare steak, cook for 4 minutes. 2 minutes per side. Allow the steak to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.