Anyway, for now here is my steak with all the trimmings. I don't cook steaks very often as I'm quite fussy about how it's cooked and I like it really tender. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there as to how to cook it, some of which I followed and some of which I blatantly disregarded! In all honesty it was perhaps a little too well done in the middle but the dark glossy top of the steak was absolutely perfect!
1 rump steak (I should probably extol the virtues of organic beef from the butcher but I just got it from the supermarket. It was Finest though!)
1 tsp rock salt
1 onion
3 tbsp sugar
50g butter
1 large potato
4 tbsp vegetable oil
3 "bricks" frozen spinach
1 clove garlic
Contrary to most of the meat dishes I cook, the steak is actually the quick thing here. To prepare it, take it out of its packaging and rub half the oil and rock salt into it. It will sit perfectly happily out of the fridge despite the label's dire warning of use immediately. In fact it will be better for it as it will be more tender if not straight out of the cold. But if you get food poisoning I'm taking no responsibility! Preheat the oven to 220C. Slice the potato into wedges and coat with the other half of the oil and half the rock salt. Lay into a roasting tin/baking tray skin sides down (they won't stick as much this way). Set the timer for 25 mins, you want them to be mostly golden brown with some darker crispy bits on the edges.
Once the potatoes are in the oven, thinly slice the onions and melt half the butter in a small saucepan. Add the onions and sugar and stir to coat. Turn the heat down to low and leave with a lid on for the remainder of the potato cooking time. They should soften and go slightly sticky and a golden brown. If they are still too sloppy and pale by the time the wedges are done, you can whack the heat up to high and stir them vigorously, but beware, the caramel can catch quickly leaving you with a dark brown stained saucepan to soak (and in my case, a disapproving housemate).
Melt the rest of the butter in a small frying pan (this is a big use all the things kinda dinner!) and finely chop or mince the garlic. Fry gently for 3-4 minutes then add the spinach bricks. Leave to defrost and cook through gently, stirring occasionally.
When there's about 15 minutes left on the timer for the wedges, heat the remaining oil in a griddle pan on as high as you can possibly go on your hob. Be prepared to turn your extractor fan on to full, open your windows and use a chopping board to frantically wave away excess heat from your face. Also check for housemate's clean laundry in the next room, they may not appreciate it smelling like a barbecue pit (oops). Once the oil is smoking, add the steak to the pan. It will sizzle, and there will be a big cloud of steam. Some of the oil might spit out at you. Don't be frightened! Set a timer straight away for 1 minute, then once this goes off, flip the steak over (another big steam cloud here, brace yourself!) and time for another minute. This is just giving a crust to the steak, it won't cook the inside. After the second side is charred on the outside, turn the heat down to low. The next bit of timing is up to you. The general guideline seems to be 2 minutes per side for rare, 3 for medium and 4 for well done, but I guess it depends how quickly your pan cools, how thick your steak is etc. I cooked for 3 minutes per side on mine and to be honest it was a tad overdone for me, but I'll know for next time. Leave the steak to rest for a further 3 minutes in the pan. Whilst you're doing this you can serve everything else on the plate. Add the classy dollop of ketchup (note to self, do this AFTER arty farty kitchen cookery) and you're good to go!
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