Friday, June 6, 2008

My cooking - pan fried steak

As I may have told some of you about how to make a healthy meal of steak, here is a photo for the lunch I just took. I didn't get those steak from Australia or USA...etc. In fact, I often prefer using some fresh meat instead of meat being frozen for quite some time. Though I read an article from San Francisco that there was a steak house over there, freezing steak for 20 years. Yes, 20 years and they said the steak turned deep brown dark, and claimed such steak is the best in taste. I think that's true but for health reason, I prefer buying local fresh cut beef from the market. So today I couldn't find the beef filet. Then I turned to this piece of lean cut. You may wonder it would be too hard to chew, right? So tell you a good way I learn from Jamie Oliver. Put this lean cut into a plastic bag or plastic wrap. Then punch the meat with your bare fist. Or if it's not elegant for you as a lady, you can use the back of the Chinese chop knife (heavy one with thicker back) to hit it. I still prefer the masculine way. So no matter how lean the meat is, it will make the meat tender without using any tenderlizer or soda powder...etc. Oh, don't use those things it will destroy the nutrition of meat. If you use, use sugar as a substitute. Ok, then after punching it for about 2-3 minutes, I put some mixed herb and black pepper I bought from Cannes.

Rinse the broccoli. I eat the stem and cut the stem in slices too. No need to boil it in hot water. If you are afraid of the little worm, put some salt in the water, and rinse it. Anyway, I would swirl the broccoli in the water to spin anything unwanted from the broccoli. Ok, then cut it. I would cut half of the bigger branches vertically so that it is easier to be done. I don't suggest the so-called "flying water (boiling)" for vegetable as it will lose the nutrition. Some people would be worried about the chemical stuff left in the vegetable. However, if we rinse the vegetable enough, I don't think it's a worrying factor. OK, prepare 2 gloves of garlic. Crush it. OK, heat the wok to medium high heat. I use very very small amount of grape seed oil (it smells better than olive to me) in the wok. Then put the steak in it. Let it stay for 1 minute something until you smell the burnt aroma. Turn it over, pan fry for another 1 minute. It depends how done you want it. If you don't wanna see the blood, then turn over it again for another half minute. By the way, I would cut the steak in around 0.8 to 1 inch thick, for this cooking time. Then take out the steak. turn the heat to low heat. Don't wash the wok. There will be some brown stuff left in the wok and that's the thing for becoming stock later on. Put some oil again and the crushed garlic. let the garlic brown a bit. Turn to medium high heat. Then put the broccoli, with a slight dash of rock salt, and sugar (not too much - only 1/4 tablespoon). Stir fry the broccoli a bit around 30 seconds. Then pour in 1 soup spoon of water and quick stir fry it. You will see the hot steam turning around in the wok. That's the key point to make the broccoli to get done. Don't pour in a great amount of water in one time. You need to pour the water little by little so as to make the hot steam in the wok. Then after you see the wok is a bit dry, pour in another soup spoon of water. Keep on quick stir fry it. Then there should be some juicy coming out from the beef (as it's a fresh cut, there should be some juice and blood). Pour the juice in the wok. Then you need to judge how much water is in the wok. If there is about 1-2 soup spoon water, you should add another 1.5 spoon of water. Cover it with a lid. Turn the heat to medium. Let it cook for about 1 minute until you feel it turns softer. Remember an important step. Cover it only for once. Don't cover it twice as the vegetable will turn a bit yellow if you do so. So the best is you use a glass lid that you can see it. If you don't want it too plain, you can put some slight oyster sauce and sesame oil to complete.

12 comments:

Stella said...

That is why I like your blog. It is a free cooking class on top of the free tour around the world and all the good foods.
I seldom dare to cook steak as the result is not good(either too hard or too raw). Will try your way next time.
By the way, I only use salt, garlic powder and "Coke" to marinate(usually for ox tail or beef shank or pork shop) so that the meat gets softer faster. This is my own lazy way ever since I read that Coke is very corrosive so I use Coke as my punching help. After using the Coke I don't put sugar inside any more. Do you think it is ok?

in the sea said...

I forgot when I did that with Coke. Probably I didn't like it after that try. However, if you want to use salt, sprinkle a little bit when you are about to pan fry or grill it. Salt will make the meat dry if You marinate for a long time. I saw Jamie Oliver put some salt on the steak with rosemary, and then punch it. Right after, he put the steak on the steak. You may try it. Garlic powder - if you pan fry or grill it, don't use too much as it will be quite sticky. However, if you want to marinate the steak, use some sweeter taste red wine instead of sugar. I still recommend you massage the meat with your hands (even squeeze it) if you don't punch it.

in the sea said...

oops.. I didn't notice you mentioned about ox tail, beef shank. For these 2, you need to shimmer it for quite a long time. Again don't use any salt. You may try to put some rock sugar (冰糖) to make it tender. For pork chop, if it's a fresh cut from the butcher's table, you don't need to marinate it. Punch it like I mentioned. Then cut the white strap (kind of a chewy stuff) on the outer skirt of the pork chop so that the pork chop wouldn't be bent when cooked. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the pork chop. Right away put that to the pan or grill. If it's not a fresh pork chop, you may try to put some oyster sauce (not too much), little sugar, some chinese wine. Again massage the pork chop with all these. Then you can pan fry it, best with a mushroom or onion (or both) in sauce over the pork chop.

Stella said...

Thank you In-the-Sea for the thorough cooking workshop. Your cooking class is better than my chef friend's.
Look forward to your delicious "lup lup"(cube cube) dish here.

in the sea said...

OK, I will try to make it for the next time I cook for my sisters. And take photo of it. Also, I will try the steam minced pork with squid.

Stella said...

OK. Look forward to your new recipe so I can "teach" and impress my C-9 friends.

in the sea said...

Stella, do you like the Shanghai drunken chicken?

Thailand Club said...

steam minced pork with squid, my favorite, u know when i go to Ah Yat, i don't eat abalone and shark's fin, instead i order this steam minced pork with squid almost every time (they do very good) and fish soup with tomato

Anonymous said...

yummy yummy - steamed squid in minced pork. many good chinese food.

Stella said...

Yes Mr. Sea. I do like Shanghai drunken chicken a lot, and so does Chris.
Do you mean to take some photo of this dish too?
This is a hard to make dish.
Steamed minced pork with dried squid. Oh I miss this dish since I left HK. Have to cook this long lost dish next week.
Question: Since you do all the cooking at home, what does your maid do everyday besides cleaning the house and washing the dishes?

in the sea said...

OK, later on I will do that and post the photo here.

Har... in my apt., it is only me - no maid at all. Just when I went to my sister's place (they hire a maid), the maid will do some cleaning and washing work. Today I just went there again and taught her how to cut the Chinese long cabbage quickly. She could spend 20 minutes to cut that, but in fact, in my way, it can be cut in 20 seconds. I don't like to let the house cleaning done by the other people. Also, I just treat that as a house work-out, no need to go to gym room.

Anonymous said...

It looks no sauce, why?