What better way is there to celebrate a birthday and spoil @zakludick than with expertly grilled steak and a nice big fat piece of chocolate cake!?
Well, Let's start with the steak! Our local butchery had a special on a Club and T-bone steak combo pack. I am normally quite wary of these as the meat is not aged and steak that is too young can lead to tough and bland steak, which is something no one wants.
Here is my secret to perfect, juicy, tender, and delicious steak, without the aging process!
I would like to insert a little disclaimer here, having been trained as a blockman and having worked in a restaurant with its own butchery, that one should never ever eat steak that isn't appropriately dry or wet aged, however.... when the craving hits and that's all you've got, you have to make a plan now don't you?
The trick is to quick-age, and I got that right by chopping fresh garlic and rubbing it into my steaks along with flavored salt and oil. You need to let this rest at room temperature for at least 4 hours. I also tenderized the steaks by strategically stabbing them (since I don't own a mallet). this meant the flavours penetrated without the steak needing to spend too much time in the pan.
The saddest thing to me in the whole world is overcooked steak. I know, it's not for everyone, but believe me, once you've had steak done right you'll never accept overcooked steak ever again. I always have mine rare to medium rare.
Cooking steak on the bone is a little tricky. You've got to remember that it will always be a little bit rarer, closer to the bone. Also, If you, like me, enjoy a nice piece of juicy fat on your rump, sirloin, or T-bone, you should always cook from the fat up: Especially if you like your steak rare, but your fat to be juicy but cooked and a little golden brown. You can achieve this by holding the steak upright either with tongs or two forks. This way you cook the fat without compromising the steak itself.
I normally give my steak two goes in the pan. Your pan must be very hot. 45 seconds on the fat side up and then 30 seconds on each side of the actual steak to seal. Then take it off the heat and let it rest. You'll stick it back in the pan and repeat this process once you're ready to serve and all your other side dishes are done.
I made triple-fried potato wedges, seasoned with flavored salt and fried eggs to go with this incredible meal.
As you can see, for extra yumminess, I scraped that steaky juicy goodness out of the pan after the last steak fry and seasoned the fried eggs with it.
I must admit it was difficult to stop eating to keep space for cake, but I thoroughly enjoyed my leftovers for breakfast!
So, now for the cake part. This is truly a hack though. My oven is broken, so alas, I had to resort to store-bought.
To my despair, I have discovered store bought cakes are ridiculously expensive for the quality you get, so I decided to skip the fancy ones and go for something I could bling up myself.
Luckily, thanks to all the cakes I normally bake, I had leftover decorations and other goodies to brighten it up and I bought a pack of Oreos for extra yumminess. I even added edible cake glitter to give it a bit of extra bling!
