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Things you will need:
1. Any cut of steak of your choosing
2. Instant mashed potato flakes
3. Milk and butter or margarine for potatoes (optional but highly recommended)
4. Salt (Garlic salt is optional)
5. Pepper
6. Stove or Hot plate
7. Frying pan
8. Olive oil or other non-stick for cooking
Place steak on a plate and pat dry (both sides).
Add a light coating of salt and pepper evenly to both sides of the steak
Let sit for 1 hour at room temperature. No longer or there is a food poisoning risk.
Pat steak dry again.
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil or other non-stick to frying pan and preheat using medium-high until the oil moves easier. Not recommended to use butter as non-stick because it will burn before the steak is done.
Transfer steak to pan, away from yourself to avoid oil splashing.
Cook to desired doneness (Choose one): Rare: 1.5 minutes on each side, Medium Rare: 2-3 minutes on each side, Medium: 4-5 minutes on each side, Well-done: 5-7 minutes on each side.
Transfer steak to a clean plate (not the one used earlier!) to let rest while we cook the potatoes.
Read potato box instructions for desired serving quantity.
Mix the water, milk and salt in an appropriately sized bowl per box instructions.
Heat using preferred method.
Season potatoes to your liking. Some examples are garlic salt, salt, butter, gravy, shredded cheese, etc.
Transfer potatoes to plate with your steak and enjoy! Note: If steak released some juice while resting this is normal. You can leave it on the plate as “sauce” or you can wipe it dry with a paper towel.
Enjoy!
Hey everyone, it’s Aaron with Biggest Little Meals and today we’re going to teach you how to make an affordable steak dinner. Um, this particular cut of meat cost me about $8 and some change I believe. It looks like a a ribeye. Um, I’m not particularly sure. I normally get New York strips. They’re even a little bit cheaper sometimes. Um, you’ll see cuts of meat often they’ll be right next to each other. One will be a lot cheaper, one will be a lot more expensive. The reason for that, um, I won’t get into all the fine details, but the short version is, um, the one that’s more expensive tends to be more tender and juicy, whereas the one that’s cheaper, even though it looks the same, tends to be a lot more tough and, uh, kind of hard to chew. So, um, the method that I’m showing you today is going to make it so that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference side by side because there’s a few things we can do to make this a little easier on the on the budget here. So, first of all, I got the steak. It’s about eight and some change for this one. Um, we got these potatoes. That’s what we’re going to have on the side. This was for the giant valueiz box. It was $560 something cents. I believe you can get get it for even cheaper if it’s just yourself. Maybe like $2 for a box half the size. Um, for seasoning, we’re going to use black pepper and kosher salt. Um, I have garlic salt here, too, because um, it’ll add a little bit more flavor. The only caveat is kosher salt will tenderize the meat better than the garlic salt will. And you don’t want to add both typically because then it’ll be too salty. So, um, what we want to do first is we want to have a paper towel and you want to make sure you pat it dry. And that’s just so all the seasonings stick appropriately. Just make sure you get all the sides here. You have to forgive me at recording with one hand is not the easiest task. Uh once it’s pretty much dry, um you’re going to go ahead and take these the seasonings of your choice. For me, it’s going to be black pepper and kosher salt. U maybe maybe the smallest dash of garlic salt just for a pinch of flavor. Um I’m going to go ahead and season this side and then I’m going to flip it and I’m going to season that side, too. And I’ll be back. Okay, so we can see how much seasoning I added here. Basically, you want to add a just a a fine layer of pepper across and then a gentle sprinkling of the salt across. And um I do want to mention that if you don’t have more fancy salts like kosher salt, I I don’t know. I mean, it’s not really fancy, but it’s different. If all you have is regular table salt, that’s perfectly fine. So, what we do now is where the magic happens for the tenderness, because this is this was a cheap cut of steak. It’s going to be tough. If I cooked it right now, it wouldn’t be very good. So, the salt breaks up the proteins um as it sits. It’s a chemical reaction. Basically, it’s just a natural chemical reaction. So, we want to leave leave this sit for about 1 to two hours. Um that’ll allow it to get to room temperature and also um start breaking up those proteins with the salt to tenderize it. And the reason that room temperature is important is that way when you cook it, um, if it’s the same temperature all the way through, it’ll cook evenly. Whereas, if it’s only a little bit room temperature on the outside, but it’s still, you know, cold from the refrigerator in the middle, you’re going to have an overcooked outside and then a raw middle, and that’s typically not desirable. So, all right. Um, I did get both sides here. If you missed the edges, just go ahead and get that extra seasoning off the plate. Um once an hour passes, I’m going to come back and I’ll show you the next steps. All right, so it’s been about an hour. Um you may notice there’s olive oil here. Now, I did forget to mention this earlier, but it’ll be um updated in the uh video description along with the official recipe that’s posted on the website. But um you don’t need it. It’s recommended you don’t need it. Uh the only thing you really need is to have a non-stick pan if you don’t have olive oil. But you’ll notice about an hour’s passed all this juice that has started to come out on the sides. That’s a good thing. Um, it’s not steak juice. And you can see it’s all coming out of the top, too. It’s not losing steak juice. This is actually water that was trapped in the meat, which is what the salt helped draw out and break up the proteins. So, you would think that this would cause your steak to be more dry, but this is the opposite um in under this circumstance. So, we’re patting it dry again. Uh the reason for this is so we get a nice sear when we put it in the pan here in a minute. Uh when you flip it, it might end up in some teeny bit of juice uh just from having it resting on the juice there. That’s not a huge deal as long as you just make sure you get the most of it with paper towel. Again, sorry I am recording with one hand here. So, um this is what it’s looking like at the moment. Um I’m just going to stick this off to the side. So now what we’re going to do is we’re going to move over to the stove or a hot plate if that’s what you have. Um I know some people are cooking at a dorm. So just getting everything ready here. Have to excuse the stove is a teeny bit dirty. Grabbing my olive oil. So you’re going to put about 2 tablespoons in your pan. I’d say that looks good. Might even be a teeny teeny bit more than we need. Going to turn it on to mediumigh heat. And you’re going to kind of move it around. You’ll see right now it’s kind of moving around like kind of more like syrup. We’ll know it’s ready to go once the oil starts to spread out a little bit. It’ll start to shimmer and it’ll also start moving around a lot closer to water. So, just takes a maybe 30 seconds or so. Um, probably even less now that I’m thinking about it more. Just roll it around in the pan. Um, if you don’t have a big pan, that’s okay. You can cut the steak into smaller pieces and just cook the smaller pieces of steak at a time. Um, let’s say you’re in a dorm, you can only have a pan, you know, a quarter of this size. That’s okay. Just make sure the steak fits. Just you just cut the steak before you cook it. So, to me, this is looking like it’s pretty close being ready. You can see what I’m talking about, though, how it’s flowing more like water now versus syrup in the beginning. Now, it has more of a a thinness to it. So, that should be good. Now, what we’re going to do is we’re going to grab our steak. And it’s really important so you don’t splash yourself when you’re laying it down, lay it down away from you. And then you’re just going to press this down gently, careful not to burn yourself on the metal around it cuz it is hot already. Now there is a guide um attached to cook it to your desired dness. Um if you want it rare, medium rare, medium, or well done, those all have different times per side. So that’ll vary depending on your preference. Um we’re going to get rid of this plate. That was just to let it sit for an hour and everything else. We don’t want to transfer this back to that plate when we’re done. Otherwise, it’s just going to have all the uncooked meat bacteria on it and everything funky. We don’t want that. So, we’re going to get rid of that plate and get a new one. And uh yeah, I’ll see you in a few minutes when I flip this. Okay, so it’s been about maybe just over 3 minutes. I’m going for medium rare here. Doesn’t always turn out the way I’d hoped, but cooking takes a lot of practice. So, you can see it’s nice and brown here. Um, it buckled a little right here because of the fat strip, which is why it’s not as brown here. But, uh, if if that means a lot to you, you can flip it over and just press down on the spot you see is not as brown as you like with the crust. Um, if it’s not something you particularly care too much about, you can just leave it as is. Um, I know the other side is going to brown anyway, so I’m not too worried about it. Um, I can’t show you with one hand, but what we’re also going to do is we’re going to hold the steak. We’re going to flip it on its side, and we’re going to just press this fat ribbon um on both sides into the oil at the end here, or towards the end, because we’re going to render the fat is what it’s called, where you basically melt a lot of it off of there. So, um, yeah, I’ll, uh, check back in another 3 minutes and see if we’re done cooking. So, another 3 minutes has passed. I’m going go ahead and flip this over and check on it. That looks a lot nicer, a lot closer to what you would expect. I’m just pressing down that spot that was a little soft on the other side cuz I know where it is. Now, we’re going to take this off the heat cuz it’s done done for medium rare. Been on there long enough. Uh, so we turn off the heat, take it off the burger, and I need to grab my plate really quick. Okay, I transferred it over to a clean plate. That’s all that’s happened since I cut last. Um, now it’s time for the potatoes. The steak, you want to have it rest for 3 to 5 minutes, and it takes 3 to 5 minutes to cook potatoes. So, it’s perfect thing to do with your time while you’re waiting. Um, I use the Idahoen brand at the moment. Uh, basically, it’s going to explain down here how many servings you then a bunch of measurements. Um, I’m guessing a lot of you won’t have a measuring cup or like measuring spoons and all that. It’s really not a big deal. You just want to kind of guesstimate. Uh, you’ll know as it starts to thicken if you need to add more water. If you add too much water and the potatoes are too thin, you’ll just add more potatoes. If you add too many potatoes and they’re too thick, you just add more water or milk. Um, milk’s optional. So, each brand is going to have their own kind of directions here, but they’re following the same tools we’re already using. You’re going to just use a microwave or a stove or a plate that gets pretty hot. Um, if you don’t know, like a, you know, like let’s say a quarter 1/4 teaspoon of salt or whatever, it’s literally just like a pinch or something. Uh, you can wait until the very very end. You can decide not to add the salt. Um, and then just salt to taste when you know they’re cooked. Just add it as you go. Um, the milk’s optional in most cases, but it makes the potatoes a lot better. So, I highly recommend you use some if you have it. Um, otherwise, I’m going to go ahead and make these now and I’ll come back. All right, so the potatoes are done. Added them to the plate. I’ve sprinkled some garlic salt on them and then I couldn’t do with one hand, so I checked the cut or the meat and it may be a little more red on camera, but this is what I would consider perfect medium rare. and it’s nice and tender. And this whole meal costs roughly8 and some change for the steak. Um the amount of potatoes we used maybe 30. So for under $10, we’re able to get this nice steak dinner. Um of course it doesn’t look as fancy as when you get it at a restaurant. Don’t have all the little garnishments and everything, but this gets the job done and it tastes great. So thank you for tuning in and have a good one.
1 Comment
Can I borrow ur frying pan homie