The Perfect Steak with Mexican Tomato Salad

Perfect Steak

WITH MEXICAN TOMATO SALAD

Combining the dry age and stovetop char methods, you will love this steak and your newfound meat cooking confidence. Remember, practise makes perfect, so don’t stress if you over or under cook it the first few times. The cooking method will work equally as well with a smokin’ hot BBQ or grill pan.

SERVES 5–6

4 x 250g scotch fillet steaks (I like the ones from Magills Butchery) flaky salt 5–6 vine tomatoes 1 punnet of mixed cherry tomatoes small handful of fresh coriander 40g punnet of microgreens tortilla chips 1 cup sour cream ¼ cup chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (available at Vetro) 3 tbsp lime juice small handful of chopped coriander

To prepare the steak, clear a space in your fridge big enough to fit an oven tray. Set a wire rack over the oven tray. Remove steak from all packaging, then sprinkle liberally with flaky sea salt. Place steak on the wire rack/oven tray and leave uncovered in the fridge for at least 24 hours or up to 2 days. If you are reading this and don’t have 24 hours to allow your steak to age, skip this step entirely, a few hours of dry aging isn’t worth it. Instead, just pat dry and season liberally before cooking. Remove the steak from the fridge an hour before cooking, to allow it to come to room temperature. Open the windows and turn on the extraction, then heat up a cast iron pan until smoking hot. Once smoking, carefully place your steaks in the pan (no oil or extra salt needed). Cook on one side for about 1 minute or until it has a golden-char colour, then flip to caramelise the other side. If the steak is burning, turn the heat down slightly, but not too much, as you do want the BBQ char flavour. Flip every minute or so until the steak has had about 3–4 minutes each side (for medium rare). Take these timings with a grain of salt, each steak differs in thickness and each pan’s heat will vary slightly, but these are a good guideline for a 250g steak. Rest the steaks for 10 minutes while you prepare the salad. Blitz the sour cream, chipotle peppers, coriander, lime juice and a pinch of salt in a food processor until smooth. Set aside. Slice the vine tomatoes into thin rounds, slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Arrange the tomato slices on a wide platter, dotting the cherry tomatoes throughout. Season the tomatoes generously with salt and pepper, then dollop half of the dressing over. Slice the rested steak into thin slices, then arrange on top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle over the fresh coriander, microgreens and dollop the remaining dressing. Serve with tortilla chips.