I can't remember which particular steak brought me back to being a lover of the cow, but I DO remember not too long after, I decided I was going to learn how to cook the perfect steak, and bought a 6 burner gas barbeque to assist the learning process.
I can proudly, and boldly, say that I can cook steaks *he hem* PERFECTLY... to the point where I am so critical of restaurant steaks, that I would say that in 3 out of 4 cases, I am disappointed.
But... all of that self-praise aside, I return to the point that I am here to make. Being proved wrong... and by a hero at that. Tonight, after napping on the couch through the evening, I woke just after midnight and realised I'm probably not going back to sleep for a while, so I jumped on 4OD (TV on demand) and had a peruse. Mr Heston Blumenthal has a new series that I thought I'd catch up on. How To Cook Like Heston is Heston teaching us, the viwers, how to cook: no fancy schmancy science-type theatrical food, but basics, that we all-too-often get wrong. Tonight's episode was Beef HUZZAH!
I will let you catch up on the whole episode at your leisure. Worryingly Lord Blumenthal tonight told me that I was wrong. That my tried and true searingly hot pan, 2-3 mins one side, 1-2 the second, was WRONG! I am yet to try his method of continually flipping every 15 seconds, but I shall... and will report back.
This has got me thinking though. If I cook perfect (and i mean perfect in the true sense of the word, ie: as good as it can possibly be) steak is there any point in me changing? Or... if my steaks are actually less-perfect than they can actually be, how much more dining disappointment is there for me in the future?
An experiment is at hand. The outcome, I don't know. But if nothing else, Heston has shown me how to make a great burger patty.
I am about to watch the next episode: Eggs. I'm fairly sure my fried egg is second-to-none, but we'll see what H.B. has to say about that. (In a worst case scenario, I might finally learn how to poach)
