Sunday tea times were always a special time in my house. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family where we sat down together nearly every night and had home cooked food but Sundays were special. My parents would think up what to cook my brother and I and they would buy lovely meat from the butchers (sadly unappreciated by me during my meat hating youth).
Well this leads me to last Sunday night when I cooked a steak. Not for the first time but it was the most successful attempt to date. I actually pushed the boat out and spent a bit more money on my meat for 2 reasons; 1. it occurred to me at 2.30pm on a Sunday night that I needed a decent meal for my tea, 2. in general with meat you get what you pay for. Now I could probably have gone to Fodder which is a few minutes drive away and has a butchers counter, but I decided once again to return to my beloved M&S. Partly because I needed fresh air and it is a 5 minute walk away from my house, partly because I didn’t want to drive, mostly because I needed to get to Asda and wanted to visit Lush.

So anyway this isn’t really a recipe post, just steak cooking knowledge I have managed to acquire.

1. I like to make sure my vegetables and carb based goodies (in this case boiled broccoli and potatoes) are nearly cooked before starting.

2. Make sure your pan is properly hot before starting. If you don’t you might make a very nice piece of meat very chewy. I cooked my steak in a bit of olive oil and butter. I made sure the oil and butter were sizzling before putting the steak in.

3. After cooking leave your meat to stand for a couple of minutes before cutting into it. This is absolutely vital as it makes the meat extra juicy and tender. Trust me.

As my steak was a thick fillet of steak I cooked it for just short of 2 minutes on each side.

I kept the rest of my tea simple as I was trying to perfect my meat and didn’t fancy overcomplicating things. I then poured the delicious garlic butter over the potatoes. Well, its got to be done!