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Bland steaks, especially filet - how do I fix?
Alan, wrote:
>
>
> Don't eat fillets! They are very expensive, and very bland!
Baloney I say :-)
I like Filets. They are my favourite cut of beef. Granted, they lose their
flavour and their texture when over cooked. I do not think of them as being
expensive. I find that my wife and I can enjoy a nice. decent sized filet each
for less than it would cost for any other good cut of beef steak. While they are
more expensive per pound, there is no waste. It is all good meat.
Rub them with garlic and slather them with olive oil and you have a nice easy
dish. I like to salt to taste after. My favourite way to prepare them is to
press coarsely ground pepper into them, sprinkle some salt into a cast iron pan,
sear them on either side, reduce the heat and cook until rare to medium rare.
Take the filets out, deglaze pan with brandy or red wine (or even sherry), toss
in some butter, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice and
reduce to a lovely, tasty sauce.
I also like Porterhouse, but in order to cook them the way I like them, they have
to be fairly thick. That can get expensive. We sometimes buy one big
Porterhouse. My wife, being more carnivorous than I, likes the outside strip and
I get the tenderloin part of it. My only problem with that arrangement is that
she likes her beef to be a little more cooked than I do, and the tenderloin
always seems to cook faster. The result is that her side is not quite done enough
for her taste and mine is a little too well done.
> Have a porterhouse, or a strip steak, or a rib-eye steak. They all
> have enough marbling to make the meat taste much better!
I have not had much luck with strip steaks. The only way I have found to
guarantee good results is to marinade them for 4-6 hours in a mixture of whiskey
and Dijon mustard.
> I'm a fan of good steak, grilled or fried, with the only seasoning
> being a little salt. If the meat is good, I think all that seasoning
> and marinating kinda disguises the good meat!
Pity. There are lots of things that can enhance that nice flavour.
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