Good steak is a luxury. I much prefer to cook steak only occasionally, sourcing the best I can from the butcher. That way, it keeps its value as a cut built around excitement and anticipation.
My absolute favourite steak is rib eye. If you’re more of a fillet or sirloin person, you may find this cut tastes fattier due to its high level of intramuscular fat, but I prefer it – it adds juiciness and brings different textures. You can cook sirloin following the same method, although I recommend trying to get it on the bone: cooking steak on the bone adds flavour, and it just looks better on the plate.
It pays to get a fairly large piece of steak, as I’ve suggested here. Anything less, and it’s hard to develop a nice crust before the inside begins to overcook. Plan to cook your steak gently and slowly, and you’ll be rewarded.
Luke Powell’s grilled steak
Serves 2–4
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus tempering
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
1kg rib eye steak
Olive oil, for drizzling
Flaky salt
Method
Remove the steak from the fridge and leave it to temper for at least an hour before cooking.
Light a charcoal grill or barbeque and let it burn down to a steady bed of white, glowing coals, hot enough that you can only hold your hand close for a couple of seconds. It would also be good to have one area with fewer embers and another with no coals so that you can slow things down or move the steak away from the flames if things get out of hand. Set a wire rack above the coals.
Rub a little olive oil all over the steak to coat, then season it liberally with flaky salt. Season harder than you think, because a lot of salt will fall off during cooking and with meat this thick, you won’t risk overseasoning.
Place the steak on the rack above the coals. Rearrange the coals if needed, positioning the meat so it can cook slowly. Gently cook the steak, flipping it every few minutes to evenly distribute the heat, and monitoring the temperature with a probe thermometer.
When the steak is around 10–12°C below your desired doneness (see bottom of recipe), start working on developing the crust: lower the rack closer to the coals and rearrange the coals to form more of a hot zone. Continue to turn the steak occasionally, allowing a nice crust to form. When the steak is 5°C below your desired doneness, remove it from the heat and leave it to rest. The residual heat will continue to cook the meat as it rests and carry it to the desired temperature.
To carve the steak, stand it on a chopping board with the bone pointing up, then carefully run a knife between the bone and the meat. Lay the meat flat on the board and, with your knife at a 45-degree angle, cut the steak into 1cm slices. Try to keep the slices in formation for serving by sliding the knife underneath the whole lot and transferring them to a warm plate. Gently season with salt between each slice.
Degrees of doneness for beef, lamb and pork
Bleu: 45°C
Rare: 50°C
Medium–rare: 55°C
Medium: 60°C
Medium–well: 65°C
Well-done: 70°C
Keep in mind that when you’re grilling or roasting, the residual heat continues to cook the item even after it’s taken off the heat. This means you’ll need to pull it off when it’s a few degrees shy of where you want it to be. You can always cook something more if it’s under, but you can’t go back if it’s over.
Images and text from Quality Meats by Luke Powell, photography by Alicia Taylor. Murdoch Books RRP $55.00.
