Topic: calling our steak guru's

[Steve]

I need your help! Ok so this coming weekend I am making dinner for heather for a sweep off her feet night in. She wants to be suprised but luckily I know her favorites. She's big into steak, she loves it, so here's the planned dinner:

Steak
Baked potato
Corn on the cob

Now I want to do this right. Nobody has ever cooked for her before. So the steak of choice (open to suggestions) is filet mignon. Now I have only cooked steak twice (once grill once baked in oven) and never filet mignon which I know is different. Thus I have no clue how I should cook it. I do not have a grill so I'm thinking pan or oven is best. But some people said broil and I don't know how. The stove has a broil setting do I just use that and it goes in the oven? I really don't know.

Also I'm looking for suggestion on preperation. Hell even tips on buying would help. I did some googling but this means a lot to me and I trust you guys. I'm happy to take prep suggestions on the potato as well I haven't done them before (except the microwave).

Important to note she can't eat dairy she's lactose intolerant..

[Steve]

I'm doing this now so I can pickup a steak this weekend and do a trial run

Should I buy all of it now and just freeze the steaks or wait till night before/day of?

[charlie]

We usually do rib eyes. Pan fry on high heat until seared, then oven cook for a few more minutes. You could probably do that with a filet. The filet is all about the sauce, though, so unless you're going to do some fancy bearnaise thing I'm not sure a filet by itself would be the best option. Then again you might want a sauce for anything you cook.

Don't freeze the steaks, wait until the day of.

I'm not a cook, so don't listen to me.

[Steve]

I have never put anything more then a1 on them but I wanna blow her mind so what kind of sauce we talkin?

I can cook so anything that uses what I have stove wise I'm down to try.

[Mike]

In all honesty if you aren't a steak cooker then you'd probably want to stay away from the filet mignon as a starter.  Prime rib is another good cut that would probably be easier to do right and you can use either dry spices or a sauce.  IIRC you can't actually buy "prime rib" at the store as the grade is reserved for restaurants.  Wikipedia is saying the actual cut name is beef rib roast.  Ask the butcher to make sure.

[Steve]

Ill hit butcher on google maps and see what's around. I'm not too afraid of fucking it up I'm pretty savvy in the kitchen but maybe your right. I just know the average off the shelf steak like a strip cut isn't going to hit the wow nerves...

[Steve]

Letting someone else do it would defeat the point and make it much less special

(4.5 hrs to tall btw)

[A Bit of Fruit]

My favourite way to cook steak is to first tenderise it with a mallet then marinate it in olive oil, crushed garlic and "Moroccan seasoning". I then bbq it but you can pan fry it...I have no idea why ANYBODY cooks steak in the oven, thats just weird.

[Steve]

Its sorta common to cook it in the oven based on a lot of recipes.

Where the fuck is cheez.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Delmonico steak well marbled.

Air dry it in the frig for up to three days.  Make sure the air circulates around the whole steak gets air even the bottom.

[Govtcheez]

Delmonico steak well marbled.

Air dry it in the frig for up to three days.  Make sure the air circulates around the whole steak gets air even the bottom.

and then do this to it
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pan-seared-rib-eye-recipe/index.html

It's really easy and really fast.  They say this is for medium rare, but it always comes out pretty rare this way for me.

[Steve]

Thnx cheez ill check that in a few.

So what exactly is air drying? Will it dry the steak out too much?

[KnuckleBuckett]

It reduces water in the meat, giving it a far more appealing beef flavor.  No.  You will not dry it out.  That would take a very long time.

[micah]

and then do this to it
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pan-seared-rib-eye-recipe/index.html

Alton Brown FTW! 

[Steve]

Cheez that sounds perfect. Its a lot like the one you posted when we made this section that I tried. Do you season exactly as he does or do you have suggestions from your own experience?

I don't have a cast iron skillet but I'm going to hit craigslist and see what comes up.