2/7/12

4 Perfect Steak with Bernaise Sauce


My sweetie loves steak.  When we were dating, I cooked him a steak on my mom's Jenn-Air range.  I burned it on one side and barely cooked it on the other side.  To this day, we joke about how I cooked him a "rare-well done" steak.

Almost 25 years later, I thought it was about time that I learned how to make a perfect steak.  The outdoor grill is sitting under 6 inches of snow ...  Nope, I don't want to cook it outside.

My other choices were to pan fry or broil in the oven.

My mom would broil T-bones many times ...  know what I remember about those?

The smoke billowing out of the oven.

My poor mom.

Through research, I found that you can broil a steak in the oven without setting off the smoke alarms.

The secret?  

Put water in your broiler pan.

You remember your broiler pan, don't you?  I know you have one.  It looks like this ~


Great!  I knew you had one!

I hate cleaning up a greasy mess, so I put tin foil on top and sliced it ...


Fill the bottom of the pan with at least an inch of water ~ it will catch the drips and keep your house smoke free.

Position the broiling pan at least 5" from the top element.  In my oven, it was positioned on the 2nd rack down from the top.

I like my steak med-well.  Hubby likes his pretty much rare.  It helps to have a digital thermometer handy.

I cooked my 1" Porterhouse steak for 14 min (7 min on each side) and hubby's at 10 minutes (5 on each side). 

In the recipe link at the bottom of the post, I've included the times for all three (rare, medium, and well) for steaks 1"-2" thick. 

On our most recent cruise, I tried steak with Bernaise Sauce.  It is butter emulsified in egg yolks and herbs.... you must try this.  It is really easy to make.

Shallots ... have you tried shallots?  These are a fancy onion, but are milder in taste.


The shallots, white wine, white wine vinegar and tarragon is put into a saucepan and cooked until only 2 Tablespoons of liquid remain.


Egg yolks are blended with the white wine reduction for 30 seconds, and melted butter is slowly poured in.  I love my immersion blender!  You can use a regular blender, too.


The sauce is half white wine (I used a non-alcoholic cooking wine) and half white wine vinegar.  Next time, I would reduce the vinegar and increase the white wine accordingly.  While the sauce was fantastic, I could really taste the vinegar.  Hubby loved the balance of vinegar in the sauce.



How do you like your steak?

Broiled Steak
(4x6 recipe download)     (full page printable recipe)

Bernaise Sauce
(4x6 recipe download)     (full page printable recipe)


4 comments:

  1. I LOVE your tip about filling the bottom of the boiler pan with water - brilliant! That's the reason I always think twice about using my oven broiler - always smokes up the house. Great post... I have to give it a try (too cold to BBQ still) I just returned from a cruise as well - where did you go? I'm having a hard time draping my own napkin in my lap now... (sigh.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! I agree, it is still too cold to BBQ ~ We went to the Carribean Islands on Royal Carribean. We get pretty spoiled on a cruise don't we? I had so much fun trying different foods and took pics of most of them. You can see the pics in three different posts:

    Appetizers: http://tinyurl.com/76qdlv4
    Main Courses: http://tinyurl.com/7gh8mu8
    Desserts: http://tinyurl.com/7za2ydp

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just took a peek... sigh. I was so busy enjoying the food, that I only took pics the last night. Beautiful photos!

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    2. Thanks! The folks at my table gave me some strange looks while I was taking my foodie shots...then I explained why. Then everyone at the table started taking pictures of their food! :)

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