abstract poet: Sunday Dinner (or How to Make a Pretty Good Steak)

Here's another post from the beloved husband:

Now that the weather in Taipei has cooled down some, Emily and I have finally gotten back into our cooking groove. This past Sunday, for instance, I decided I was going to grill us up some steaks…or one steak for us to share, seeing as we’re ballin’ on budget.

You might call me a “steak purist” of sorts--I don’t have much patience for the multiplicity of sauces and toppings and other adornments that other people like with their steaks. And that corn-starchy abomination known as black pepper sauce preferred by local Taiwanese-style steak joints just makes me want to vomit. I like my cow to taste like cow. Rub that baby down with a generous handful of salt and freshly ground pepper, then sear it to a perfect medium rare. That’s all. At most maybe do a little beurre rouge (red wine reduction with butter swirled in) on top at the very end.

But I’ll admit that this minimalist approach works best when you’re working with the highest quality of beef, and unless you live in Argentina or in some quaint Italian village, that can be hard to come by. Especially in Taiwan, where American beef (which isn’t even that great) costs an arm and a leg.

So when I came across a recipe for a marinade for grilled ribeye steak in my 2001 Best of the Best cookbook*, I figured maybe this would be a good way to spruce up mediocre meat. But, just to be safe, I still ended up splurging on an NT$500 ribeye from City Super for my trial run. The recipe, which originally comes from Alfred Portale’s 12 Seasons Cookbook, follows:

The first thing you want to do is season your steaks on both sides with coarsely cracked black peppercorns (mine were just coarsely ground from my pepper grinder), pressing them into the meat.

For the marinade, the recipe calls 6 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of chopped oregano, 1 tablespoon of chopped rosemary, and 3 cloves worth of minced garlic.

That’s for four 12 oz steaks, and I only had one 14 oz one, so I just guesstimated, putting in a little less than a third of everything. The recipe says you can substitute half the amount of dried oregano, which I did. I also used dried rosemary, about a quarter of the amount, which I crumbled as best as I could, but I really think fresh rosemary would have been better.

Anyhow, stir this mixture up and pour it over your steaks, coating both sides. Cover them up with saran wrap and let marinate 30 minutes at room temperature (or up to 2 hours in the fridge; just make sure you bring them up to room temperature before you grill). Here’s what my steak looked like as it marinated:


Right before you start grilling, season your steaks generously on both sides with sea salt or kosher salt. This recipe calls for charcoal grilling, but a grill pan or even a regular 12-inch skillet (which is what I used) would work nearly as well. Get the grill/pan nice and hot, and cook the steaks over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side for medium rare, basting them with whatever’s left of the marinade for the first few minutes. Don’t fiddle with the steak too much when it’s cooking, and only turn it over once. It should get nice and charred on the outside. 10 minutes later, voila:


Of course any steak recipe that gives you a cooking time can only estimate, since your meat’s thickness and the heat of your stove/grill will vary. Here’s a neat trick for how to tell when a steak is done: Press the tip of your pinky and the tip of your thumb together (on the same hand). Touch the fleshy muscle in the palm of your hand, just underneath your thumb. It should be pretty taut--that's how a well-done steak should feel when you poke it with your finger.

Now try this using your ring finger (medium-well to medium), middle finger (medium to medium-rare) and index finger (rare).


You should feel that muscle getting squishier and squishier. After you’ve used this method a few times, you’ll get the hang of it, and you won’t have to keep flashing people the “okay” sign or the shocker.

Truth be told, this time around I made the rookie mistake of leaving the steak on the pan while I attended to something else, and by the time I got back and poked it, I knew I’d cooked it for a minute or two too long. So it was more medium than it was medium-rare. Not a fatal mistake, but not perfection either.

Now let your steak rest on a plate for five minutes (otherwise you’ll lose all the juices with the first cut) before cutting it into thick slices. We served it with a side of Asian-style long bean salad…


…and some smashed potatoes and an Italian red wine in the glass. Overall, I was pretty happy with the marinade. It took hardly any time to prepare, and it gave the steak a nice herby fragrance and a hint of sweetness without overwhelming the flavors of the meat itself. It was great with the ribeye, but I bet it’d work with other cuts, too, as long as they’ve got some thickness and some fat to them.

So here’s our Sunday dinner, on the plate. Not too shabby.


Loyal readers, if you’ve got any secret steak recipes of your own, feel free to share!

* The best recipes from the best cookbooks that year, as judged by Food & Wine. It’s a pretty kick-ass collection of recipes.