you bloody bastards, all of you!
I used to eat steak five times a week before I moved to Korea in 2002. Now, I'm lucky to get around to eating it once a month. £30/kg on average here, the highest beef prices in the world.
btw, if anyone saw on TV riots of angry Koreans protesting the importation of American beef, well, the first shipments of US beef hits shelves Monday and its all sold out. Damn. What I wouldn't give right now for a real Angus ribeye steak. I baste mine in butter before grilling them, or smoke them - smoke extract in the city, but back home in Ohio once upon a time in my life, we'd soak mesquite briquets in water then toss them on the coals before grilling the steaks.
here's a pic of some really good stuff; premium Korean beef. A lot like the Japanese stuff. And you pay an arm and a leg for it
(yes, those two steaks, half a pound each, work out to £50/kg)
A great steak that I like to make (but is hard to do indoors) is cajun blackened steak. You take a well seasoned iron skillet, heat the bejesus out of it until its practically glowing, then you throw in the steaks, completely coated in melted butter and "blackened steak magic" herb powder. Takes about a minute per side, maybe less, and you sear in everything, all the heavenly goodness, with the steak covered in a cajun crust and perfectly rare on the inside. oh, lordy.
Ah, forgot the best part! Steak sauce. Instead of A1 or Worcestershire, or some fancy demi-glace, go Asian - karashi-yaki. Yellow mustard, sugar, corn oil, and soy sauce. I used to make it up by the gallon, and then have a good old American ribeye with Japanese sauce and steamed rice. Ohhhhh.
Dammit, I'm dying for steak so bad now, I'm gonna try to get me and the missus on the Atkins diet
btw, how do you fellows take your steaks? Oftentimes (especially when eating Korean BBQ and we're grilling up slices of raw beef over charcoal), I'll merely brown the sides and eat it with the stuff about 90% raw. There's even a sort of steak tartar in Korean cuisine, called yook-hwe, which is raw beef mixed in sesame oil and some secret spices in very moderate amounts.