Steak night!

Steak night in our house is my favourite night, and pretty much whenever we eat out I'll order steak. You can always tell how good a chef is by how well their steak is cooked (I don't mean well done!). Everyone has their favourite cut of steak, mine is rib-eye. Here's a quick guide to the different cuts of steaks:

Fillet: The prime cut of steak and the most expensive! Slightly over rated in my opinion. It has very little fat and is very tender, used in dishes like Beef Wellington and for the cuts known as Tournedos and the famous Chateaubriand.

Rib eye (or Scotch fillet to my antipodien friends) : My favourite cut of steak, it rivals the rump steak for flavour. The 'eye' of fat in the steak helps to maximise the flavour when cooking.

Sirloin: Spoiler alert!....It was never knighted by an English king! Not the most tender of steaks but it still packs a punch in terms of flavour. A whole strip loin is also great for roasting.

T-bone: For some the T-bone steak is the best of the lot (especially dogs and cats in cartoons!). It has on the one side of the T bone some fillet steak and on the other some sirloin. Cooking food on the bone in my view always enhances the flavour.

Rump steak: The unsung hero of steaks due to it's great flavour and being the least expensive cut. It needs to be cooked quickly as it can become quite tough.

Beef needs to be 'hung' on the bone for at least 28 days good quality butchers would have hung their meat for this long. Most super markets hang theirs for 18 to 21 days. The hanging process really helps to let the flavour of the meat mature gaining greater flavour as it does so. An easy way of seeing how long the meat has been hung is to look at the colour. It the steak is a light red then it hasn't been hung very long. If it's dark red then it has! When buying a steak you want to get one that has a light marbling of fat through it (little specks of fat) this really helps to enhance the flavour during the cooking process.    

Cooking process
Steaks are best cooked at room temperature, if they're cooked when they are cold the proteins in the meat tense up causing the steak to become tough. Take the steak out of the fridge a few hours before cooking to get it to room temperature. Just before you are about to cook the steak brush it with olive oil and season well. Get your griddle or frying pan very hot and begin cooking the steak to your liking, here's some timings to get your steak to how you like it (for a steak that's about 2cm thick) :

Blue: 1 minute each side
Rare: 1 1/2 minutes each side
Medium rare: 2 1/4 minutes each side
Medium-well done: 2 1/2 - 3 minutes each side

When you steak is cooked to how you like it it is important to let it rest for at least 3 minutes to let the juices that have been drawn to the surface to relax back into the meat. I like to serve my steaks with at least one type of veg and homemade game chips-super skinny ones. I also like to top it with a baked field mushroom filled with Stilton, but that's up to you!

8oz Rib Eye steak, with garlic green beans, game chips and Stilton stuffed mushroom.