Cooking During COVID | Back to the Basics

By Richard Hardimon
Ohio University

With more free time on my hands I have decided to take up cooking as apposed to ordering out. That is not to say I dislike take out but I thought it was high time I learned to cook a half decent meal for myself.

My culinary techniques only span to steaks so far but through trial and error, and quite a few burned steaks, I have a simple pan seared steak recipe that I would like to share.

I prefer a strip steak personally. To start, my seasonings consist of only salt and pepper, preferably kosher salt, but if you happen to have some Himalayan pink rock salt that works wonders as well.

I then salt and pepper one side of the steak then pat the spices in with a napkin as keep my hands clean, repeat on opposite side. Once it’s properly seasoned I then add the olive oil to the pan, turn the burner on high and wait for it to start smoking before adding the steak.

Let it cook on one side for approximately two and a half minutes before flipping and waiting around two minutes before taking it off and—voila the steak is done.

Before digging in I suggest letting it rest for around five minutes. This will make the meat more tender and let the juices distribute themselves throughout the steak. This recipe is extremely simple, but as my skill in the kitchen improves slowly but surely over time I hope to expand on it and share more results.