During the period when I was recuperating after surgery, the husband took care of most of my meals. When I could finally chew on something hard (goodbye porridges and congees!), he whipped up a steak meal for me as a well deserved treat. His ‘anyhow-make’ recipe turned out to be pretty satisfying 🙂 Weeks later, I was craving for steak again and I kind of adjusted his recipe and came up with this – a healthy and wholesome homemade steak. Instead of using cream for the sauce, I used low fat milk as a substitute and thickened that up with some corn flour. It worked perfectly fine 😉
My tips to cook that perfect steak:
1. Make sure the pan is pre-heated till very hot (and smoking) before adding the steaks as that will seal the surface of the steaks and lock in the moisture.
2. Oil the steak and not the pan to prevent the meat from sticking to the pan.
3. Only flip the steak once when cooking.
4. Use back of tongs to test the beef. It will be soft if it’s medium rare and springy if it’s medium.
5. Always cover cooked steaks with foil and rest for 3-5 minutes before serving. Steaks will be more moist and juicy this way.
Steak with Mushroom Sauce Recipe
Ingredients (serves 2)
2 pieces 2-cm-thick rump or sirloin steaks
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 + 1 tsp vegetable oil
200g white button mushrooms, sliced
1 small yellow onion, diced
100ml low fat milk
100ml beef stock
1/2 tbsp corn flour
mashed potato as side
steamed vegetables as side
Instructions
1. With kitchen towels, pat the steaks dry and then rub the steaks with 1 tsp oil. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
2. Heat a frying or griddle pan over medium-high heat till it starts to smoke. Add steaks and cook for 2 1/2 minutes on each side for medium-rare or 3 1/2 minutes for medium. Flip only once. Remove the steaks, wrap with foil and rest for 3-5 minutes.
3. In the same pan, add 1 tsp oil and saute the mushrooms and onions. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add beef stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer.
5. Combine the corn flour with milk and gradually pour the mixture into the pan while stirring with a spatula. Sauce is ready once it starts to thicken.
6. To serve, arrange steaks, mashed potato and steamed vegetables on plates and spoon the mushroom sauce over the steaks.