steak

When I was young my parent’s house back onto bushland. This meant that the shortage of neighbours was more than offset by the availability of firewood.

Often on a weekend we would have a barbeque for lunch (generally on a Sunday, Saturday was golf day). Standard fare was steak, sausages, tossed green salad and sauce.

Almost invariably the steak was cooked to within an inch of its life - well, a few feet into death, really. My father had been taught that meat is only cooked when it’s very dark, and consequently fairly tough. Tasty, yes, but equally chewy.

I learned this skill from my father and consequently have produced many burnt offerings from the barbeque over many years of practice. It was only relatively recently that I figured it didn’t have to be this way. Using the google is my friend technique, I went looking for help on how to cook steak perfectly. I’m slowly learning, and it’s far from perfect, but the following guidelines taken from this Taste site are sure to help:

• preheat the hotplate/grill/frying pan to medium high heat
• brush the steak with olive oil, not the grill
• season with salt and pepper just before putting on the grill
• cook the steak for the requisite time (see below) on one side
• turn the steak only once
• when cooked, remove from the hotplate and let it rest under foil for a few minutes
• eat, and enjoy

Cooking time in minutes per side