Culinary Adventure: Reddit Steak & Veg Chili

That there is a two inch thick, two and a half pound, porterhouse steak. And it was the first steak that I have ever cooked.

I'm a big reddit fan, especially the subreddit AskReddit because it really is a wealth of knowledge. Sure, you gotta wade through the filth, but when you find a gem, it's totally worth it. Recently there was a thread titled "Chefs of Reddit, what are some tips and tricks that everyone should know about cooking?" As an expert in water boiling and potato mashing, but very few more complicated dishes, I thought "hey maybe I can learn something here..." Then I found the following recipe:

1. Ingredients:
1. Thick cut (porterhouse) more than 2 in


2. Prep:
1. Keep meat uncovered in the fridge overnight.
2. Hour before cooking, remove from fridge and pat down with paper towels.
3. Preheat oven (and pan!) to 500.
4. Season both sides of the steak with coarse salt and like a teaspoon of oil.
5. Place pan on stovetop, and sear each side of the steak for 2 minutes.
6. Stick about three tablespoons of room temperature butter and three sprigs of fresh rosemary on top of the steak.
7. Replace steak in oven for 3 minutes.
8. Flip the steak and cook 2-3 more minutes.
9. Baste the steak with the melted butter.
10. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

 It didn't seem too complicated, so I figured I'd give it a go. Got a nice cut from the butcher at the supermarket, and told him it was my first time. "Aww man, girl you're gonna love it - this is a good cut of meat!" It was also a $22 cut of meat. Little bit of sticker shock, but after eating a tiny piece of sirloin at a restaurant the other night for $12, I realized... This is a much better deal.

So I dropped that sucker in the fridge, threw a little salt on it to help it dry out, and waited. Now, in addition to cooking that steak, I also had my vegetarian friend coming over for dinner last night. I didn't think I'd be able to convince her that it was a soy steak, and I never really make meat-free dishes, so I quickly Googled some fast vegetarian entrees and settled on a chili dish. 

I'm not going to spend much time talking about this dish, but it was pretty good. I got the recipe here, left out the mushrooms, and subbed in black beans. 

So back to my steak...

I learned a few lessons from this steak... The ceramic pizza stone we have worked great for searing the steak. However, as a flat surface, it didn't do a go job containing the butter and other juices, and I wound up getting them everywhere. Next time, I'll need to figure out a better cooking surface.

Also, the recipe above didn't produce (for me) a rare steak, it was only up to about 106 degrees... I just kept flipping it, 3 minutes on this side, 3 minutes on that side, until I wound up with a nice medium-rare piece of meat.

Tell you what, that was a good piece of meat. And the vegetarian chili was pretty damn good, too!