Simple Red-Peppered Steak Recipe

I had  T-bone steak that was on sale at Hannaford. I had to cook it. I had misplaced my black peppercorns. I was used to cooking steak using black-pepper but now I had to do without it. So I managed to cook a steak using dried red whole & crushed red pepper that ended up tasting 5-star-ish. I tried to avoid cooking the meat in oil or any kind of liquid, I was looking for that grilled type of taste.

Ingredients

T-bone Steak

Hydrogen Peroxide

Tamarind concentrate

Peppercorn Sauce

Garlic

Mushrooms

Dried Whole Red Pepper

Garlic

Sea-Salt

Equipment

Cast-Iron Griddle

Method

Heat Iron Griddle close to as hot as possible. 

Rub Food-Grade 3% Hydrogen Peroxide on one side of steak. Rub Tamarind concentrate paste & Peppercorn Sauce into both sides of steak. 

Add Whole Dried Red Peppers, Sea-salt, Crushed Dried Red Pepper to Griddle. Add mushrooms, cook in Griddle. Add Ale & spread throughout Griddle. Let ale evaporate via cooking. 

After steak has marinated approx 30 minutes, add steak, pieces of garlic. Cook for 5 minutes on one side without moving steak. Turn steak over. Pile mushrooms on top of steak. After 6.5 minutes of cooking time have elapsed, cover steak with lid of pot, lid should be a couple of inches deep vertically like a cylinder (the lid I had available barely fit the steak...need to buy pot with big lid). Leave lid over steak for 2 minutes. Remove lid. Continue to cook for 1.5 minutes. Transfer steak and mushrooms to cool plate. Wait 5 minutes before eating steak.

Result

The result was an excellent-tasting steak that provided a change of pace in terms of flavor and ingredients. The meat, a fairly thin-cut, was cooked to about medium no pink was visible, despite this it and the mushrooms were very tasty. The sauce left naturally on the plate (no special cooking done to make the sauce), provided a tasty sauce for a piece of white bread (the bread was toasted directly over the oven's gas flame for a little while). The whole project was simple and required little time in the kitchen. 

Mistakes(?)

The ale was used because I knew that crushed dried red pepper when burned or overcooked is more of a problem compared to black pepper. However the crushed dried red pepper ended up being overcooked and burned anyway. So perhaps I should have used only whole dried red pepper and not crushed dried red pepper.

Perhaps, I should carefully manage the dried whole red-pepper moving it in and out of the griddle to avoid burning it too much. Perhaps the ale should not be completely evaporated before the steak is added, or removed from the pan and saved for later use before the steak is added. Perhaps, the steak should have been cooked for less time so that it would be partially pink. Perhaps vegetables should have been added with the mushrooms such onions, undried peppers. Perhaps the garlic should have been added at the beginning when the mushrooms were cooked. Perhaps crushed dried red-pepper should continue to be used but added later in the cooking process.

ndoor Grilled Steak a la Raj

I love the taste of charcoal-grilled & gas-grilled steak. Unfortunately I cannot cook such steak in my apartment. But after failures, I came up with a way to cook the steak, that results in a steak that while tasting different from charcoal & gas-grilled steak, has a flavor that is approximately as good, a sophisticated, high-class, clean fresh healthy flavor.

Equipment: Cast Iron Griddle ( bottom of pan features approx 1/4" deep grooves)

Ingredients: Black peppercorns, sea-salt, Colgin's liquid smoke, garlic, tamarind concentrate (available at Indian store), Organic Ghee (available at Whole Foods), spring water, steak.

Method: Mix some Tamarind paste & spring water together to produce a Tamarind water. Pre-heat the griddle for at least 15 minutes. Sprinkle sea-salt & ground black peppercorns, & liquid smoke on the griddle. Put half a clove of garlic in each corner of the griddle. Spread Tamarind concentrate in middle of griddle. Put steak on griddle, let cook for 4 minutes.  Turn steak over, let cook for 4 minutes. spread Tamarind water on steak. Turn steak, let cook for 1 minute. Remove steak. Turn off heat. Put organic ghee in pan. after a couple minutes, pour ghee out of pan, on side of steak, and over steak.

During cooking, periodically (about 3 times) pour Tamarind water in corners of griddle.

This recipe follows the principle of mostly avoiding direct contact of flavorings with the steak. It does not require marination of the steak. I've read that Tamarind plays an important role in steak-sauces and marinades. I suspected that Tamarind by itself could produce as good or better a result as such sauces because people tend to overcomplicate; seems this guess proved correct. This steak is way better than my first pompous attempt a few years ago at a steak recipe.  This is version 1, based on a first attempt; further versions will be posted here.