Have you ever had a steak cake?
Well, what we created at home recently certainly looked like one.
My wife, Mary Beth, picked up a huge steak (it said “roast” on the packaging) on a recent shopping excursion. Our daughter, Brenna, and I handled the cooking of said hunk of meat.
Normally, I’d have fired up the Big Green Egg for such an undertaking, but the weather was not co-operating, so we turned to Plan B.
And that plan was particularly delicious. It started as expected – a heavy dose of seasoning both sides of the steak and letting it sit in the fridge for a time.
We then pulled it out to bring it up to temperature and planned around or cooking of this colossal offering of red meat. Brenna, the air fryer expert, planned out when to put in the fries, as I was occupying the stovetop and the oven with the meat.
We put the burner on high heat (seven out of ten), let the cast-iron pan heat up with garlic-infused olive oil already in it, and carefully put in our steak. I swear, it was a good eight or nine inches in diameter and about an inch and a half thick.
We seared it on both sides for about two and a half minutes and then sent it into the oven at 425 F for five minutes.
That was my error. It was not long enough.
When we pulled it out, I cut off a “slice” of steak cake and saw it was Pittsburgh blue – not cooked enough for our tastes. So it went back in for another seven minutes. What came out was medium rare and full of flavour.
Combined with the fries and a salad, it served the three of us well. And our daughter said it might have been the best steak she’d ever eaten.
Plus, we had plenty of leftovers.
Those leftovers got worked over pretty well a couple of nights later when we made steak bites. We took a baguette, sliced it up, and topped it with cheese, garlic spread, a balsamic glaze and arugula before putting them in the oven to get toasted.
Four of us ate our fill, and we still had leftover steak.
And then two steak and cheese sandwiches the next day, followed by one steak and cheese on a bagel the next morning.
Ten meals from one $16 “roast.” I’ll take it.
I love our Big Green Egg, but I’m getting my eyes opened to other ways to cook meat. Pan-seared steak in good cast iron certainly locks in the flavour.
I can do the same on the Egg, either in a cast-iron pan or directly over the charcoal. I think I’ll have a cooking comparison this year…with two steaks. One in a small cast-iron pan on the Egg, and the other right on the grill. High heat to start to sear in the flavour, a switch to indirect heat to create the oven-like cooking environment, and we’ll see what we get.
Of course, both will have something the steak cake didn’t – the smoky flavour from the Egg.
Catching up
I don’t get out like I used to. The pandemic changed so much of that for me. It’s not a fear of public places, but rather an enjoyment of home.
But I recently caught up with a couple of old friends who I had not crossed paths with in several years. We met at Red Barn Brewing for a few cold suds, reminiscing, and a lot of laughs.
Two and a half hours of just chatting makes one realize we should all treasure face-to-face time with other folks. Too often in our conversations that night, one of us brought up friends and family who have passed on.
But we created more memories and plan on gathering again. It will be my turn for a pitcher of refreshments. Thanks for the beach glass, Nate!
