Cold outside? Don’t let that stop you from having the perfect steak!

We live in Winnipeg. It’s a known fact, that we have COLD winters. In fact, at one point, it was colder in Winnipeg, than it was on the planet Mars. If you’ve been living here for as long as I have (24 years), you should be used to it (should be is the key word), but if you’re like me, you still hate going outside when it is -30.

I LOVE having a nice, tender, juicy steak. I would never let the cold weather from preventing me from lighting up the BBQ and cooking up a steak. However, recently , I tried cooking a steak in a cast iron pan, and I absolutely fell in love. The flavour is awesome, and I don’t have to wear 10 different layers and brave the cold for my steak! I might even like it better than being done on the BBQ…..maybe

I’m here to share:

What you’ll need:

A cast iron pan

Steak of your choice (my favorite is rib eye or New York)

Sea salt

Pepper

High temperature cooking oil

Butter

Step 1: Cover both sides of your steak with oil!

Step 2: Season both sides of the steak with the sea salt and pepper! I like to go a little heavy on the pepper because it creates a nice flavour crust. You can really use any seasoning you like, but it’s important to maximize the flavour of the steak, and not the flavour of the seasonings.

Step 3: Put the cast iron pan on the stove burner, and let it heat up. Make sure your burner is on high! You want the pan to be smoking hot (literally).

Step 4: Place the steak into the pan. Keep the temperature on high. For a 3/4-1 inch steak, cook for about 3 mins per side to get a nice medium rare steak.

Step 5: Lower the temperature after the steak has cooked for 4 mins per side, and add a piece of butter to the top of the steak. Watch the butter melt all over the steak, but be prepared to remove from the pan and onto a plate or cutting board.

Step 6: Remove the steak from the pan, and plate it. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes. It’s important to let it rest, and this allows the juices and flavour to redistribute throughout the steak.

Step 7: Slice…and ENJOY!

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! It’s become a routine “hangout” now to have friends over and cook multiple steaks on a cast iron pan. We can mingle, talk about our weeks, laugh, and even compete on who makes the best steak, all in the warmth of my kitchen!

Cheers,

Wajih Zeid