Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Techniques! We Got ’em!

Good morning folks and Happy Oscars day.

Make it Snow will be along a little later to get you geared up for DFOs annual Oscar coverage fiesta.

I thought I would try something a little bit different today. Rather than give you a recipe verbatim I thought I would give you a couple of universal cooking truths and techniques. Wasn’t that thoughtful of me? Actually not at all, I just really wanted a pan seared steak and a baked potato.

Then it dawned on me that I could use this moment as a cooking lesson. Yeah, that’s it! Then the more I thought of it the more I realized that there really are some good teaching points to be had from something as simple as a seared steak and a baked potato. We can discuss proper prep, proper utensils, cooking temps and the like.

Sounds good?

Let’s get a look at that banner image real quick.

Two quick things to point out: obviously that’s a cast iron skillet in use and just as obvious is the sexy fucking sear on those two slabs of protein. That’s a boneless rib eye steak and a bone-in sirloin pork chop in case you’re curious.

What if we had used a standard non-stick skillet for the preparation instead of a pre-heated cast iron skillet? Let’s take a look.

While producing a delicious tasting chop, it just doesn’t deliver the sexy sear action that the cast iron skillet does. However! It does have other benefits that we will discuss in a moment.

First of all…

THIS IS MY CAST IRON SKILLET, THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT BUT THIS ONE IS MINE. MY SKILLET IS MY BEST FRIEND. IT IS MY COOKING LIFE. I MUST MASTER IT AS I MASTER MY LIFE. WITHOUT ME IT IS USELESS, WITHOUT MY CAST IRON SKILLET MY COOKING WILL SUCK.

Sorry to get all “Full Metal Jacket” on you but goddamn do I love this skillet. That’s a 12″ cast iron skillet that I purchased about 20 years ago from these guys.

Lodge Manufacturing makes rock solid and reasonably affordable cast iron products. This one retails for about 40 bucks not including tax and shipping and holy good God do you want to try and get free shipping because this motherfucker is heavy as FUCK! Your UPS guy will hate you when he delivers it. Seriously you could skip a gym membership and just do curls with this bad boy. Then again you’ll need a gym membership to be able to lift this thing with one hand.

I’ve used this skillet for many previous episodes of Sunday Gravy and I wanted to share a passage from this post where I made corned beef hash.

“Basically the best way to build the proper crust is to cook this in cast iron. Now, can you use a non cast iron or non-stick pan? Of course you can but you may miss out on the beauty of a properly cooked crust though. One quick aside: I mentioned earlier that I had help cleaning the after dinner dishes but NOBODY touches my cast iron skillet but me. I’ve spent years seasoning this thing and that can be undone in a minute if somebody tries to soak this or use dish soap. I clean and treat this bad boy myself. It will be a chore to clean after this dish but it’s worth it.”

When I decided I wanted to cook a steak and baked potato the first thing to dictate cooking conditions was the weather.

/checks temperature – about 45 degrees and windy.

Fuck that! We’re cooking indoors. Second thing to dictate was the food I was cooking. Again cooking a rib eye in that non-stick pan would definitely produce a tasty product but it wouldn’t be near as tasty as cooking in cast iron nor would it be quite as aesthetically appealing.

Again here are the pork chops in the non stick pan:

This is after flipping the chops over by the way.

Now here is the rib eye in the cast iron.

Here endeth the lesson on cast iron.

Let’s back up a bit and talk about how this steak got to be the sexy as fuck sizzling in it’s own juices bad ass motherfucker that it is.

First big key to cooking a steak or hell any damn piece of meat is to let it come to room temperature prior to cooking.

Notice that I brined the pork chops in the standard cup of boiling water, 3 tablespoons of salt added, dump into two additional cups of cold water along with some peppercorns, bay leaves and crushed garlic type brine that we’ve used before. The rib eye didn’t need a brine.

The reason for reaching room temperature before cooking is to have a consistent cook throughout the meat. You don’t want to have cold spots impacting the desired doneness here. The chops just needed to be drained, thoroughly dried, patted with a paper towel and add a grind of black pepper. For the rib eye, give a liberal coating of salt and pepper.

First we are going to prep the skillet for cooking/searing.

You remember those baked potatoes I discussed earlier? Fuck it let’s go ahead and cover the basics for those potatoes.

Get one good sized russet potato per person.

Rinse these in cold water and scrub thoroughly to remove the dirt. Your basic standard middle-of-the-road steakhouse baked potato can be simply pierced with the tines of a fork a few times, wrapped in foil and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 60-70 minutes and you’re good to go. I prefer mine a little differently.

The one in the center is mine. After washing the potato I again pierce the skin by poking the potato with a fork. Then I rub a little olive oil over the potato to lightly coat. Next season with some kosher salt – the oil helps the salt stick to the potato skin – and then place directly on the oven rack to cook the same as the foil wrapped potatoes.

Baked potato perfection. Here’s an extreme and somewhat lurid closeup of the baked potato.

Sorry, I was fucking around with my camera settings. Salt, pepper, butter and freshly chopped chives – directly from my herb garden – is my potato pimping style but season as you like. Fuck it man, go crazy and add bacon bits and cheese and chorizo or… I’m not here to judge.

While the potatoes are in the oven take out your cast iron skillet, add just a tablespoon or so of cooking oil. I used peanut oil due to it’s high smoke point but canola oil will work too. Now we are going to preheat the skillet by placing inside the 350 degree heated oven right next to the baking potatoes. Fuck it, leave it in there for 20 minutes or so. We want to get this bastard SMOKING hot.

Carefully remove the skillet from the oven and place immediately over a medium/medium-high flame on the stove top. After a couple of minutes we will then add our seasoned steak and pork chop. Please note: turn on your oven fan and open a few windows because this shit will be getting smokey.

Leave these alone to cook undisturbed for 3 minutes. Set a timer and step back. Three minutes have passed and we will flip them over.

Cook for another 4 minutes.

At this point the chop should be pretty close to done. Remove it from the pan, leaving the rib eye steak in the pan and place the chop on a plate and cover in foil. It will rest for at least 5-7 minutes to finish the cooking process. When done?

Fuck yes!

Next we will be placing the cast iron skillet with the rib eye back into the still heated oven to cook for 3 minutes. Flip the steak and cook for an additional 3 minutes more. Remove from the pan, cover with foil and let rest for about 10 minutes to achieve full medium rare perfection. If you want medium doneness cook for 4 minutes per side then remove from the oven, cover and rest. If you want it cooked further than that maybe you should be hanging out with our Cheeto Dusted Chief in a steakhouse of his choosing because I don’t play that shit.

Serve the steak with the baked potato and maybe a nice glass of cabernet.

Here’s another extreme closeup.

Work with me here folks I’m still fucking with my food photo settings.

Delicious, simple, classic and indulgent.

For you keen eyed readers this is where I address the fact that yes, I did use two pans to cook today’s meal.

Here’s where you may be thinking, “You’ve been blowing all of this smoke up our ass about cast iron cooking. Why the fuck did you also use a non-stick skillet?”

Because, my foul-mouthed interloper I wanted to make a lovely mushroom, wine, garlic pan sauce to coat the seared meats with.

Why didn’t I just use the drippings from the cast iron skillet and make the sauce in that?

Class?

Shit yeah! Someone’s been paying attention!

Because cast iron is a “reactive” cooking vessel and the sauce we wanted to make contains wine, an acidic ingredient. Tomatoes also fall under the acidic category. Adding wine to a reactive pan can alter the flavor and appearance of the sauce and could potentially impact the “seasoning” that I’ve spent years working on that coats the surface of the cast iron skillet. I ain’t gonna fuck with the seasoning on the pan surface.

Hence: cooking some of the chops in a non-stick skillet.

Add the chops to the preheated non-stick pan with a tablespoon or two of olive oil.

Cook for 4 minutes over medium heat. Using a pair of tongs flip the chops over.

Look at the difference in the sear between these chops and the one cooked in cast iron.

Cook the chops another 4 minutes after the flip and then remove from the pan and cover with foil. They should rest for at least 5 minutes.

For the pan sauce I used about 3/4 cup of marsala wine. The very last of my marsala reserve. Remove the pan from the heat and deglaze the pan with the wine. Using a wooden spoon scrape up the browned bits. Return the pan to cook over a medium/medium-low flame. Next add in the garlic – about 3 cloves minced – also add 5 ounces of sliced mushrooms – shitake for this application – some salt, pepper and about 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme. Add in 3 tablespoons of butter, one tablespoon at a time

and reduce by about half.

Serve the potato alongside the seared flesh of choice and top with a spoonful of the pan sauce. Serve with a slice of toasted bread – garlic bread works famously here – and a side salad and you have achieved near cooking immortality with minimal effort and a small number of ingredients. And you did it all indoors without needing a grill!

Let’s have a quick summary.

Sear your meats using a blazing hot cast iron skillet.

If making a wine or tomato based sauce use a non-reactive pan.

Baked potatoes are easy as fuck-all to make.

You don’t need a grill to be a steak making motherfucker just a really nice and well-seasoned cast iron skillet.

Thanks for reading folks.

Enjoy the Oscars.

Drink things!

Peace!