Pan-Fried Steak

In the west, having steak for lunch is not something out of the ordinary, but having steak in the east, especially here in Malaysia, calls for a special occasion.  As usual that special occasion for me and my family is when all of us are home, plus the fact that all my children has been hankering for us to prepare steak.  Of course, it is not difficult to prepare, but our society has always looked at meat as something of an accompaniment to rice, which means it does not take center stage.

Anyway, for a juicy result, of course the only choice for steak is rib eye.  I cut it to about 1 centimeter thick then marinate with chopped garlic, ginger, some pepper and olive oil overnight.  Make sure the meat has come up to room temperature before you start cooking it.  I fried it in olive oil for one minute a side because I like my meat medium rare.  And make sure you rest the meat before serving. And steak is nothing without the gravy.  Do adjust the flavoring to your personal taste :-)

3 tbs butter
4 tbs plain flour
300ml hot water
300ml milk
10 button mushrooms, sliced (I used tinned!)
1 beef stock cube
1 tbs thick soy sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1tbs freshly ground black pepper


Heat the butter then stir the flour in until slightly brown (which means the flour is cooked)  Then put in the rest of the ingredients and keep on stirring until bubbling and thick.  P.S. I used Worchestershire sauce instead of vinegar!

As accompaniment, I had some salad, the ingredients of which you can easily identify from the picture above. I used my home made vinaigrette consisting of some lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, mustard and honey.  For fries, I bought the thick, thick ones from Giant (I can't possibly make crinkled cut fries myself, so....)

In the west you would have your steak lunch at one seating but in my household, my children had second helpings.  Then third helpings at around three, fourth helpings at four and so on.  Now, you know why I very seldom prepare steak for lunch; or dinner for that matter!