Monday, April 13, 2009

stovetop secrets

Hey friends!
I need everyone's advice: What is your preferred method of preparing steak if you don't have a grill?
Also, does anyone feel that those pans with the grill marks are worth it? Do they make life better? Do they make food better? Do they make pretty grill marks, thereby making you feel like you're grilling outside?

I am the Luke Skywalker to your Obi-Wan. Guide me.

8 comments:

Sara said...

I use a george foreman when i can't get outside. I have one with removable plates for easy washing, and i think it does a great job cooking. Granted, i almost never cook steak, but it makes good burgers and I even did Kebabs last week. Plus, you can use it to make quesadillas and as a sandwich press.

exit_265c said...

When I can't grill, I technically fry them. I put a little bit of vegetable or olive oil to coat the pan and then turn it over a lot so it doesn't stick or one side gets cooked a lot more than the other. I don't think it's necessary but I'm just OCD that way with them.

The pans with the grill marks are probably better because, as you're cooking them, the steaks aren't kinda sitting in the grease you don't want on them.

In short, I agree with Sara: the Foreman Grill makes things many fives of times easier.

Amanda said...

I don't do steak, so I can't really help.

In other news, cute blog! :)

Aliya said...

AMBERS!! :) Cutie blog!

You should def get an indoor grill-pan. They really do work like a real grill.. you won't get that "smoky" outdoorsy flavor, but it'll cook your steak nice. We have a cast-iron one and I prob use it a couple times a week. Good luck!

Bret said...

george foreman all the way.

or you can pan sear for a couple minutes on each side then transfer into the oven to finish cooking it.

grill pans are fancy and i do love mine, but i use the george foreman more.

Unknown said...

it's really simple.

just broil it!!!

use the oven broiler that (should have) come with your oven. put the steak on it and set it to broil. seriously it takes like 10 minutes and all the grease drips into the pan...

Amber said...

um....this is the part where i confess i don't know what the broiler in my oven is. to google images I go!

Joe said...

I tried to leave two lengthy comments yesterday with the same advice Ryan gave you ... the broiler is the way to go. It's the next best thing to grilling. And while those grill pans are nice and all, they're not great for steaks. You need the higher heat.

The broiler is the thing at the bottom of the stove, by the way. Open that door down there and you should see a pan inside that can be adjusted up and down (closer or farther away from the heating element or gas fire).

I hate cleaning the broiler pan, so my personal preference is to adjust it to the lowest rack, then take a shallow baking pan, line it with foil and put the wire rack from my toaster oven in it. Then I put that on top of the broiler pan. If you let it heat up with the broiler, you'll get some nice little grill marks on the steaks from the toaster oven rack. And the cleanup is a lot easier. You just clean the wire rack and throw away the foil, and maybe give the baking pan a good rinse. But you'd need a toaster oven rack for that.