A Wonderfully Cooked Steak

“One measly steak!” to quote Jimmy Stewart, but I cooked it up quite nicely without a grill. And here’s how.

I started with a 3/4 pound NY strip, maybe 1 1/4″ thick.

I patted it dry & sprinkled kosher salt on it. Let it sit about 20 minutes to get to room temperature.

I heated up my nonstick T-Fal 12 inch saute pan, then added a little peanut oil. Steak went in under medium-high heat. Three minutes on the first side, two minutes on the other. Then I put the pan into a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes to get a medium pink on it.

When it came out of then oven, I put it on a plastic cutting board and covered it with foil for 10 minutes.

That was it – it came out great. Nice crust from the oil, nice lack of gray-pink border on the inside from the oven – pretty much a nice shade of pink all the way through. Your oven may vary – I used a meat thermometer to get a 130 on it when I removed it from the oven.

Had a nice salad, some fresh French bread & a cabernet with it.

And ate it while watching a Wild Wild West rerun followed by flipping the dial and landing in the middle of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly to make it THE MANLIEST MEAL EVER!

I ate steak a lot more often when I was a kid. When I got constricted by both budgetary concerns and diet, I cut back on it and made a dinner routine of mostly chicken, fish and pasta varieties. Then I got used to the non-steak routine and never wanted to deal with cleaning up afterwards. But not having to clean a broiler or grill makes me think I’ll be doing this one more often. The combo of the nonstick pan and the oven made cooking and cleanup a breeze, never mind the steak coming out so perfectly with crust & interior. Screw my cholesterol, I’m not gonna live forever anyway, and that’s what the Cabernet is for, right?

And I’ll confesss I switched away from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly to watch an old movie with Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner. The movie is pretty weak, despite Vincent Price & Charles Laughton in the cast as well, but lest ye doubt my manliness, GOOD GOD was Ava Gardner the most beautiful starlet to walk the Earth, never mind how out of her mind she was.

She sizzles MY steak! Huh huh huh huh huhhuh…..