Not the first steak I ever ate, obviously. (I hope that’s obvious.) The first steak I ever cooked in my own apartment, without any co-chef, without any supervision, without even a smoke detector. (I had to yank mine entirely off the ceiling a few years ago when I was frying lamb sausages.) I bought a boneless thin cut New York Strip Steak from Sprouts (more on the magic of Sprouts in the next post) because the price seemed normal ($5) and the piece of raw meat didn’t look too terribly intimidating. It looked like something I could handle. Sometimes I look at a piece of raw meat in the butcher section of the grocery store and I just think, there’s no way.
I took this piece of meat home and had intended to make “steak bites” from Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook but since that was more of an appetizer I tweaked the recipe and instead of cutting the steak into one inch cubes I decided to cook the whole thing. Luckily I had instructions on how to heat the pan and how long to cook the meat (which I think are the hardest parts of cooking honestly--just knowing what kind of temps you’re working with).
I pressed a bunch of semi crushed peppercorns into the meat on both sides, and salted it with some coarse Kosher salt, as instructed. I live for fresh peppercorn. You’ve gotta know the difference between peppercorn and pepper. Peppercorn are tiny little round balls of pepper. They are so insanely flavorful and they look pretty professional. They make meat taste very manly. Puts ground pepper to absolute shame. I won’t touch ground pepper anymore.
I pushed a bunch of peppercorn into this meat and then turned my stove on high and put about a tablespoon of olive oil into my beloved cast iron skillet. (Cannot speak highly enough of my cast iron skillet. If you haven’t bought one yet you must. You can do anything in them and they add a very rustic vibe to your meals.)
I laid the meat in the skillet once it was hot and it instantly started cooking up. Note to those of you who might re-create this at home, things get a little smokey, so be sure you have yanked the batteries out of your smoke alarm and open a few windows (open all the windows and get a fan going).
The particular cut of meat I purchased needed literally only 90 seconds of cooking per side. I flipped the piece over with tongs and had a gorgeous crusty steak. After the second side was done I slid the meat onto a plate and topped it with some blue cheese butter. To make this butter, all you have to do is take a spoonful of soft blue cheese and mix it together with a little bit of soft butter (room temp or even a little melted is good). Obviously this sauce is pure crack, and legal. It is the two best foods swirled together. Throw a dollop on top of a peppered steak and you have just curated a bite so tantilizing you will forget Trump is president.
I’m sure some of you are scratching your head going “This meal is so fatty! Steak and butter and blue cheese?” Guys this is what I mean by good fats. I bought grass fed blue cheese, a consciously sourced cut of meat, and I used Kerrygold butter (simply the best).
I didn’t smother my steak with 4 tablespoons of the sauce, either. I used less than a golf ball size. As much as I despise this saying, let’s internalize it: ‘a little does go a long way.’ I don’t want to encourage anyone to get into the habit of measuring foods. It’s obnoxious and not cute. Rather, try listening to yourself. Very few people actually listen to what their body needs. Sadly, it’s become almost revolutionary to “not diet” and to simply tune in to the cravings your body has.
As someone who is training for a marathon (gonna take every possible opportunity to remind you all), I am hungry much more often, and for much for satisfying foods, than I am when I am not training for a marathon (there it is again!). Don’t get hung up on antiquated labels and stereotypes related to foods or ingredients.
I say this all because personally, I have noticed an enormous change in how I feel when I shed all of the arbitrary limits I had placed on myself. There is so much joy in good food and learning not only how to cook but how to nourish yourself.
Now bare with me as I relate this to mediation. A lot of people think that meditation is about getting some place, or accomplishing something, or reaching a specific place. It’s entirely the opposite. It is about unbecoming all of the things you think you are in order to reveal who you truly are. I get choked up just thinking about how beautiful the practice is.
This concludes my post on how meat and meditation relate. Go fire up a steak!
