Beer & Bones

I’ve been eating mostly vegetarian for the past two months, partially for health and wanting to drop a few pounds before school starts up, partially because I’m lazy and figured out that veggies are quicker and easier than cooking meat. I haven’t had a proper steak in over two months (gasp).

I found myself at the local Pavilions earlier today picking up some veggies when I happened to walk by the meat counter and notice that they were running a special on their filet mignon steaks and like a child picking out a puppy, there was one steak in particular that seemed to be wagging its tail vying for my attention. It then became steak night officially and somewhere trumpets sounded.

Cooking a steak is one of the easiest things in the world to do, yet so many people still manage to get it wrong, covering a good cut of meat with unnecessary marinades and rubs. To cook a perfect steak, seared on the outside, juicy on the inside you need just things (in addition to a steak):

1. A cast iron pan
2. Sea salt and pepper
3. Time

For my little slice of steak heaven, I took it out of the fridge an hour before cooking, unwrapped it and gave it a generous coating of sea salt (I use grey sea salt from Esprit Du Sel but any coarse salt is good) and regular black pepper. This allows the meat to get closer to room temperature while the salt sucks out some of the moisture.

While the meat was sitting, I prepped the asparagus by soaking it in water (I find that this helps it cook better on the grill) and sliced up the shiitake ‘shrooms. I also cracked the beer of the evening, one Dragon’s Milk which comes courtesy of New Holland Brewing that I brought back from my most recent trip to Chicago. This is an oak barrel aged American stout, the wood tones of which I thought would pair nicely with the meat and mushrooms.

After letting the meat sit for an hour, the first step towards steaky perfection is to put your cast iron pan on the burner and get it super hot. Crank the burner up to 7 or 8, sprinkle a little salt in the pan and wait. Waiting means beer time, so I poured a glass of the motor oil colored stout and took a whiff. Nose is pretty standard for a barrel aged stout, some hints of vanilla, caramel and yes oak. Upon tasting though, it becomes clear that this is some potent stuff. I tasted flavors of oak, strong malts, a hint of vanilla, a touch of prunes but mostly it tasted like bourbon, sweet sweet bourbon. In fact, it reminded me of one of my favorite bourbons, Woodford Reserve with its flavors and smooth oaky finish and I felt like this would be better enjoyed sipped slowly while wearing a seersucker suit. Definitely one of the more potent stouts and something best enjoyed over the course of an evening.

So back to the meat. After about 8 minutes on the burner, you have one very hot pan, which means it is steak time. Dash a little more salt in the pan and gently set your cut of meat in there. Now walk away and for God’s sake DO NOT TOUCH IT! I got the griddle going with my asparagus and mushrooms as well, keeping it simple, just garlic and olive oil for the mushrooms and smoked hickory salt for the asparagus.

After 5-6 minutes on one side (my steak was thick, thinner ones need less time) go ahead and flip it and give it some more salt if that is your thing but again, do not touch it. Moving and flipping the steak as it cooks is how steaks get ruined. I cooked the other side for 6 minutes, seared the edges for a few seconds, then pulled it off the oven. Simple as can be. Next, you want to let your steak rest for a few minutes before serving. Keep in mind that even if you pull it off the grill, it is still cooking, which is why you want to let it rest, untouched for a few minutes before you serve it up. I gave mine about 8 minutes before serving it up with the nice, earthy shrooms and tasty tasty asparagus. Check out the results, seared to perfection on the outside, nice and juicy on the inside.

Now that the hard work is done, time to enjoy it with some beer, but unfortunately I found the beer way to potent to be enjoyed with the steak. The bourbon tones and strength of the beer (10%) simply overpowered the simple flavors of the steak. If I could do it again I’d pour this bad boy alongside some ribs or smoked dish, something with a little more spice to tame this monster of a stout.

This entry was posted on July 20, 2011 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Beer, Food, Stouts . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.