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Quick reminder, my new cookbook
"Basics with Babish" is coming out
in almost exactly one month.
Pre-order at the link in the video description
for access to an exclusive recipe.
All right, so today we're gonna take a look
at a couple different steaks cooked a couple different ways
with a couple different sauces.
First up, about as classic as it gets,
beef tenderloin, pan-seared, oven finished,
and served with a red wine sauce.
One best practice for virtually any steak is to dry brine.
That is to generously coat every facet in kosher salt,
placed on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet,
and refrigerate uncovered for one to 24 hours.
Then when it comes time to cook,
because we wanna make a pan sauce,
we're gonna use a stainless steel pan
generously lubed with a neutral high smoke point oil,
like vegetable or canola,
preheated over medium high
until you start seeing little wisps of smoke
coming off the top of the oil,
which means that the pan is well over 400 degrees Fahrenheit
and ready to receive our patted dry steaks.
The objective here is to achieve a deep, dark brown crust
on all aspects of the steak as quickly as possible.
So over medium high heat,
ideally, these guys should be ready to flip
within one to two minutes.
The faster we put on a crust,
the longer these guys get to gently come up
to temp in the oven.
They'll be more evenly cooked, they'll lose less juices,
and we'll get more time to make a robust pan sauce.
So once every facet of the steaks has received
some hot pan action,
these guys are headed back onto a wire rack
set in a rimmed baking sheet,
a temperature probe optionally inserted
in the thickest part of the thickest steak
and they're headed into a 225 degree Fahrenheit oven
until they reach 10 degrees shy
of your desired doneness point.
Now we're gonna get rid of the spent darkened oil
in the bottom of our pan.
Ideally, there should be some fond and bits of brown stuff,
but no such luck for me.
So instead, I'm just gonna saute
half a small minced shallot,
one to two minutes over medium heat until softened.
Then I'm gonna add one clove of crushed garlic.
Let that enjoy the heat for about 30 seconds.
Then we're gonna deglaze the pan
with three quarters of a cup each
dry red wine and beef stock,
preferably some concentrated, super gelatinous,
homemade beef stock like this stuff,
and preferably a much less purple wine
than the one that I used,
but we'll fix that later.
I'm also gonna add a sprig of rosemary, a dried bay leaf,
and a couple parsley stems I have lying around.
We're bringing this mixture up to an aggressive simmer
so that we can reduce it by more than half
until it has a thick, almost syrup-y quality.
Now, it was at this point that I realized
that my Malbec was not going to yield the correct color.
So for both flavor bolstering and color correction,
I'm adding a tablespoon of tomato paste,
continuing to reduce until delightfully thick and viscous.
At this point, we're gonna kill the heat entirely
and once the last bubble has broken through the surface
we're gonna start whisking in
a whole lot of unsalted butter.
Reduced red wine is very acidic
so we we need at least three to four tablespoons.
Taste for seasoning, adjust with kosher salt,
freshly ground pepper and/or more butter,
and whisk until thick, glossy, and, well, buttery.
Strain out all the solids through a refined mesh sieve
and keep warm until ready to serve.
Meanwhile, our steaks are up to temp.
I was shooting for 120, but hit more like 125.
Now we're gonna loosely tent them in foil
and let them rest for about 10 minutes,
during which time their temp is gonna rise
another seven to 10 degrees.
Hence why we pull them outta the oven
10 degrees shy of where we want them to be.
If your filets are tied,
don't forget to snip those strings.
Unwrap carefully because depending on
what part of the tenderloin they're from,
they can be delicate.
And you can either serve whole or slice.
The grain in a filet runs top to bottom,
and if you slice, you wanna slice across that grain.
So for presentation's sake,
this usually means slicing on the diagonal,
cutting into medallions that can be fanned out
to display how perfectly cooked your steaks are.
Spread them out on maybe a bigger plate than this.
I'm just doing this for food styling.
Sorry this is out focus,
but we're garnishing with parsley, flaky salt,
freshly ground pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil,
and, of course, our red wine sauce.
So if this is the sort of traditional forward sear method,
what about the reverse sear?
As its name suggests, it is the same process but in reverse.
This time I've got a bone-in New York strip.
I'm inserting the temperature probe at its thickest point
nearest to the bone and sending it into the oven
till it reaches 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
During which time,
I'm going to make a delicious compound butter for serving.
I've got one stick of room temperature, unsalted butter.
I'm adding half of finely minced shallot,
one clove of garlic that I'm lightly crushing,
chopping, and finely mincing.
The more you break it down,
the more garlic flavor you're going to get.
I'm also gonna add a half teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme
and about a quarter cup of finely chopped fresh parsley.
There's a bunch of different herbs
that you could mix and match here.
Tarragon, dill, marjoram, rosemary.
And of course, we need to season
with a hefty pinch of kosher salt,
a few twists of freshly ground black pepper,
and a little pinch of optional chili flakes
if you want a little bit of heat.
Mash that nonsense together with a fork
and set aside until ready to serve.
Speaking of ready to serve,
our steak is headed out of the oven.
It's hit 115 degrees Fahrenheit at its thickest point.
Overshot it last time
so I'm trying to undershoot it this time.
Pat it dry if any moisture has accumulated on the outside,
yank out the temperature probe,
and bring it over to the stove top
where we have a preheated cast iron pan
generously coated with neutral oil
and heated to smoking.
Just like last time,
we're trying to blast it with as much heat as possible
so that we form a crust as quickly as possible.
The internal temp is gonna rise anywhere
from 10 to 15 degrees so we gotta work quickly.
If your stove is a fat cap, make sure to sear that.
It's been well rendered and browning,
it will make it look and taste delicious.
Remove from the heat back onto a wire rack, tent with foil,
and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.
I'm gonna start by slicing it off of the attached bone.
And once again, slicing the steak on a slight bias.
This is gonna cut across more muscle fibers,
making it more tender for the human mouth.
Go ahead and serve this fanned out next to the bone,
if desired, with plenty of compound butter.
Ideally immediately smeared over top
so that it starts melting,
creating a glistening, burnish steak dotted
with herbs and garlic.
Maybe one of my very favorite things to look at.
Serve with a nice crisp salad,
maybe some baby kale with a mustard vinaigrette.
So that's both forward and reverse searing techniques,
ideal for thicker steaks.
But what about a thinner steak like a flank?
This is a versatile, slightly less expensive cut
that's also thin enough that we need to just sear it
until it's done.
So to help it develop a crust faster
I'm gonna make a mixture of two tablespoons of kosher salt
to one teaspoon of white sugar.
The sugar's gonna help a crust form more quickly
so that the steak doesn't overcook
by the time we get some good color on it.
Same procedure as before.
Lightly coat all sides,
place on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.
and refrigerate for one to 24 hours.
Now, if you're gonna do the whole flank,
your best move is to grill it.
Preheat the grill on high for 10 to 15 minutes
until it's ripping hot.
Lower the heat to medium high
and lay down the steak on the diagonal.
After about three minutes,
go ahead and rotate at 90 degrees
so you get the nice cross hatch pattern.
Repeat on the other side
and grill until the thickest point registers
about 125 degrees Fahrenheit.
Don't be afraid to flip it
if things start darkening too quickly.
But most flank steaks that you find in the grocery store
are available like this, chunks.
Same rules apply,
but this smaller form factor means
that we can make it in a pan.
Now, flank steak, more often than not,
is served with sort of a dressing rather than a sauce.
So once this guy's cooked through
and he's got a nice, deep golden brown crust
and he is resting for the requisite 10 minutes,
we're gonna make a dressing that's sort of halfway
between a mojo and a chimichurri.
Starting with a third of a cup of extra virgin olive oil,
the juice of one orange, the juice of one lime,
anywhere from one to four cloves of garlic, crushed.
Also, sorry, the battery in my mic died
so no audio from this point on.
But a half teaspoon of chopped fresh oregano
or one teaspoon of dried oregano,
but a quarter cup of chopped cilantro.
Or, in my case, parsley leaves
because I'm one of those annoying people
who doesn't like cilantro.
Then I'm also gonna add
a couple thinly sliced scallion greens,
but you could use shallot or any other onion-y flavor.
A little splash of red wine vinegar, maybe two splashes.
A teaspoon of whole cumin seeds for a nice flavorful pop.
Seasoning to taste with kosher salt
and freshly ground black pepper.
And I'm also gonna add about two teaspoons of honey
for a surprise pop of sweetness.
And, of course, some optional red chili flake
if you want a little bit of heat.
Go ahead and tiny whisk this until it's well emulsified,
adding more fruit juice or vinegar if it's too oily
or more oil if it's too watery.
Our steak is freshly rested, and as you can see,
it's got a very pronounced grain structure.
Particularly with flank steak,
it's important that we slice thinly and across the grain.
It's gonna make the difference
between the steak being tender and toothsome
or chewy and terrible.
It's helpful to use a long, thin carving knife
so that you can slice the steak as thinly as possible.
As you can see, even with a proper rest
we're still gonna lose some juices.
That's okay because we have a bright, bracing, garlic-y,
and slightly sweet dressing.
It's gonna play really nicely
with the grassy, mineral-forward flavors of a flank.
Go ahead and garnish
with a few more thinly sliced scallions,
sprinkle with flaky finishing salt,
maybe a few twists of pepper.
You've got the perfect steak
to whip up quickly for a crowd.
Or just for you if you're really, really hungry.
But this steak makes for great leftovers.
Steak salad, steak and eggs, steak tacos, you name it.
Hope you guys saw some stuff that you wanna try yourself.
Lots of tips and tricks like these
are gonna be in my new book "Basics with Babish,"
available October 24th.
Pre-order now and get access to an exclusive recipe.
Check out the link in the video description.
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