General > Cooking

Professional chef turned EE

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langwadt:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on February 08, 2021, 11:15:35 am ---
--- Quote from: Halcyon on February 08, 2021, 02:22:10 am ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on February 08, 2021, 12:53:40 am ---I use a frying pan with a thick bottom which I let heat up on high fire until the olive oil (+ salt) starts to fume a bit.

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Once olive oil starts to smoke, it's dead. Tastes horrible and shouldn't be used. If I'm using oil at high temperatures, I usually go for either rice bran or peanut oil. I'm sure those who have actual qualifications in the industry will let me know if I'm wrong.

--- End quote ---
Yes, that's true. Olive oil shouldn't be allowed to smoke. I use rapeseed oil for high temperatures, which seems to be the most common cooking oil in the UK.

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to me hot  rapeseed oil  smells kinda fishy, apparently not everyone can smell it

I've heard avocado oil should be great for high temperatures

tszaboo:
Hi. Congrats. I know you probably felt like a kitchen was a stressful environment, because the pasta was 1 minute late, or the Crème brûlée caught on fire. So get ready for the real stress to begin, where the million EUR project is months late when your last prototype board is on on fire.


--- Quote from: Halcyon on February 07, 2021, 11:44:27 pm ---Or perhaps you can tell us, how do you cook the perfect steak? I can cook all manner of things, but steak is just something I keep getting wrong.

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Sous vide. Its the engineer's way of making steak. By slow cooking it for about two hours (depends on the part of the cow) at 57 degrees (that's how I like it, you may go anywhere between 54 for raw to 60 to well done) and then using the Maillard reaction making a crispy crust in about 30 seconds per side.
There is no guesswork, once the procedure is set and tried, it is reliably producing the same result.

hvna:

--- Quote from: Halcyon on February 07, 2021, 11:44:27 pm ---Welcome! It's always interesting to see people from all different backgrounds and professions here. Everyone has a story to tell.

Will you share with us your "signature dish" (at least one we can make at home)? ;-)

Or perhaps you can tell us, how do you cook the perfect steak? I can cook all manner of things, but steak is just something I keep getting wrong.

--- End quote ---

I definitely do not have a signature dish, that's for sure. I have worked in every style of cuisine imaginable, and have a favorite from each one.

As far as the steak goes, you guys are engineers, and I won't dumb anything down. I will give you the genuinely perfect steak:

First of all, the cut of steak is up to you, if you like something a little more lean (why would you?) then go for a filet, of a trimmed up strip. Otherwise, go for a real steak, like an untrimmed Ny strip, a ribeye, or even flank or hangar (not your traditional steaks, but surely good enough for all intents and purposes.). This recipe will be for a NY strip.

You should go to your local butcher for a strip, not the super market. That way you can specify exactly which side of the loin you'd like the steak cut from and the thickness. Never get the steak from the sirloin end, as it has a long strip of relatively tough fat and sinew that is difficult to soften during cooking. I would shoot for a 10oz ideally, should be 2~ cm thick.

This recipe will be utilizing sous vide (you asked for the perfect steak, remember?). You want to rub roughly cracked black pepper, fresh thyme (on the stem still) and sliced shallots all over the steak. Use a bit of olive oil to cover the whole thing and then seal it very tightly in a vacuum bag, no air left at all. Then, hopefully you have a thermometer of some sort, you want to pierce through to the center of the steak and seal the spot on the bag with duct tape, which will prevent air from leaking out. If this is tricky, then you can use a bit of foam to hold the seal between the duct tape and the thermometer.

Now, bring a sous vide bath up to about 85C and drop the bag in. Wait fifteen minutes and drop the temperature down to 54C. This is just for sterilization. Drop the sous vide controller down to 54C. Keep a good watch on your thermometer and wait until it hits about 52C internal. At that point, you can let the steak cook for another hour at that temp.

After the hour is up, you can pull the bag out of the tank and shock it in ice water if you wont be eating the steak soon, or you can start heating up a pan. Season the steak heavily with salt and pepper. For the pan, cast iron is great, but anything else should work, just not teflon coating. The best oil for high heat searing is clarified butter, and you'll want to put the steak in as soon as it smokes.

Let the steak sear on each side until when you drag your fingernail over the surface, you can hear an audible scratching sound. That's a good sear.

If you want to bring it up to a temperature other than rare/med rare, put it in a low temp oven (275F) and cook until the center is just warm and that's a medium. You should be able to find steak temp charts online. Let the steak rest at minimum 15 minutes.

That is a perfect steak.

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