Pan Seared Strip Steak

Because low carb duh. 

Hi! How is your week going? I'm still vaguely recovering from the weekend and Jay leaves in two days for a trip of his own, so we're scrambling to get a ton of laundry done while also attempting to spend time together in the 3 days this week we are both home. Dinners together are definitely part of that plan. 

We've been eating a teensy bit more red meat recently, and this is by far our favorite way to eat steak. We eat it with some kind of roasted veggie that can cook while the steak works, and dinner is DONE in 30 minutes, maybe less. 

A few notes on the process. I use a cast iron pan every single time. No grill, nothing nonstick, the crust meat gets in cast iron is just SO good. I use butter + oil for flavor and high heat, and salt not pepper. I think pepper can get too spicy/sharp with super hot cooking, but by all means pepper your steak if you're into that. The sauce is straight shallot cooked in the beef drippings while it rests, nothing fancy, and holy flavor it's so good. I've done this with onion too and the results are equally delicious. 

Let's steak!

Four ingredients for entree plus sauce. Steak, butter (ok fine and some oil, so five ingredients), shallots, and salt. I used two here, but sometimes I use more because we are onion lovers around here slash Jay eats half of them before we even sit down to eat. 

Before you cook the steak, let the meat rest out of the fridge for at least 20 minutes so it isn't super cold when you start to cook it. I do one steak for two people and that's more than enough, but if you are cooking for more people just be sure that your skillet is large enough to hold the steaks you're cooking with a few inches between each piece of meat so that they'll still get nice and crispy at the edges. While the steak is resting, preheat a cast iron skillet to medium-high (my stove has a 10-point dial and I preheat at a 6) with the oil. Sprinkle the meat with salt very liberally on both sides. 

When the skillet is hot, add the butter and swirl it around in the skillet until it foams and sizzles. 

Add the steak to the hot skillet and leave it alone while it cooks. You'll flip it one time and that's it, no moving it around or messing with it. While the steak is cooking, peel and thinly slice the shallots if you didn't do that in advance. 

For a steak that is about an inch thick I do 5 minutes per side, flip the steak, then do another 3 minutes before taking it out to rest. This yields steak that is somewhere between medium and medium-rare, which is perfect for us. 

Remove the steak to a plate to rest for several minutes and turn the heat down on the skillet to low. 

Add the shallots to the skillet and stir them to cook and pick up the beef drippings from the skillet. They'll cook and brown and soften and be the BEST topping for the steak. 

After about 10 minutes, thinly slice the steak and marvel at how perfect it is. The juices shouldn't run out, but if you lose any try to reserve them and put them in the skillet with the shallots. The key is to rest the steak so the juices redistribute (they're essentially bubbling inside the steak so if you cut the steak when it's super hot they'll run out of the steak and it'll end up dry and flavorless), so the meat will be warm/room temperature but the steak will be juicy and delicious. 

Spoon the shallots over the steak, and we're good to go. 

So simple, so flavorful. Of course you can top the steak however you like, but I love the simplicty of using the pan drippings since you have to let the steak rest anyway. You can add some beef stock or Worcestershire sauce to the shallots if you're feeling fancy, but they are honestly so good without anything added to it. 

Steak for dinner this week! Chicken needs a break. 

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