There is nothing better than a perfectly cooked steak. Nothing. Like with all foods, the ingredients matter. WIth steak, it really matters. First of all, choose the right steak. I like a marbled NY Steak or a good thick Fillet Mignon. I let it rest out of the fridge to bring it to room temp. I bring the oven up to temperature (Ours goes to 550 degrees, 600 would be better).

While the oven is heating up, I cut a big beefsteak tomato into two thick slices, season with a little olive oil and salt and begin to caramelize them in a non-stick pan. They need to be cooked through.

When the oven is heated, I start to warm the iron skillet on the stove top. It needs to come to full temp. With the oven hot, we make the fries. We have found that the frozen string fries are the best, and we do them in two steps. Step 1 is to cook them from freezing at 425 for 15 minutes, then the second part is while the steak is resting, they finish browning in the hot oven. Perhaps another 5 or os minutes.

Back to the steak. I take steak very seriously. My go to is on the rare side of medium rare. What this means is that the internal temperature needs to be in the 105-110 degree range when I set to aside to rest.

What I do is this. About 30 minutes before I start searing it, dry it with a paper towel, then I season it with kosher or sea salt, black pepper and peri-peri on both sides. When the pan is hot, and by that I mean that a little olive oil is smoking, I drop the steak. I sear it for 2 minutes on each side, then it goes into the hot oven on the middle rack. Depending on how thick it is, defines what happens next. I turn it over after 2 minutes and then test the internal temp if it feels cooked. After that I turn it and test it each minute till the temperature is just 105 in the middle using a tip thermometer.

When its on the cutting board resting I add a little butter and finishing salt. Then I carve it on the bias and serve it with the potato of choice, in this case, fries, and the grilled tomato.

The combination of the acidity of the grilled tomato and the juices of the steak make each bite perfect.

Our next meal was Pad Thai!