Beef is a very tasty meat product that is consumed all over the world, and thousands of recipes for its preparation already exist. The peculiarity of this meat is that it can even be eaten raw, and steaks and various dishes are often served with blood. Here are only the best recipes that describe how to cook beef soft and juicy.
All About Steaks
In the CIS countries, you can often find such unique dishes as pork or chicken steaks. In fact, it's just fried meat. Real steaks are fried only from beef, from different parts of the carcass and different types of meat. To make the meat juicy and tasty, first of all, you need to understand the degree of roasting. At the same time, roasting applies not only to steaks, but also to all other dishes from veal or beef. Therefore, it is imperative to know the degree of meat preparedness.
Varieties of roast beef
As already mentioned, beef can be served even raw. During heat treatment, there are only 5 main degrees of roasting (in fact, there are a few more, but this applies to cooks in chic restaurants, an ordinary person needs only 5 types).
Rare is the minimum degree of meat preparedness; the temperature in the middle of a piece fluctuates around 38 degrees. It is this degree of roasting called "with blood." Thus, it turns out that the meat was caught on top with a crust, and inside it is only warm. It is considered the softest and juiciest, but not everyone loves such a roast.
Medium rare - in this case, the beef is already a little more cooked, it is still half-baked, but the meat inside the piece is already much hotter (up to 58 degrees).
Medium is a classic of beef. In this case, the meat is no longer raw, but on the cut it has a pleasant pink color. Medium is considered the most popular and most common cooking. The meat is still tender and juicy, it is no longer raw, but not too dry. The temperature inside the meat should be 63 degrees.
Medium well - almost completely prepared meat, slightly pinkish juice simply flows from it. Beef is already becoming tougher, and it already has much less juice, the temperature inside the meat is up to 80 degrees.
Well done - the most prepared meat; no traces of blood are visible in the section; white juice. At the same time, beef is already becoming quite stiff and dry. It is not recommended to bring such meat to a state of full readiness.
Grilling and marinating steaks
When everything became clear with the degrees of roasting meat, you can begin to study how to cook beef steak in a pan. The most expensive and tender are the Filet Mignon steaks fried from the central part of the tenderloin. Also, Ribeye steak from the rib part of the animal and entrecotes from a thin rib slice are considered to be very popular and tasty.
Before you cook beef steak in a pan, the meat must first be processed. Cut a piece weighing from 250 to 350 g from the selected part of the animal’s carcass - this is the ideal product weight when preparing a classic steak.
The meat should be put in any bowl, doused with a small amount of olive oil, add sea salt, peppercorns. Put on a sprig of rosemary and thyme. By and large, for the classic preparation of the steak, nothing more is needed, let the meat be marinated for some time, and then you can start cooking.
Note! Many people, including even cooks, beat meat a little before marinating and cooking. You do not need to do this, this is the peculiarity of steaks that just a whole piece of meat is grilled on a grill or pan.
Heat treatment
Now you can proceed directly to cooking beef. To prepare this dish at home, it is recommended to get a grill pan, it has the necessary grill and a fairly thick bottom, which is extremely important for cooking steaks. But if such dishes are absent, then you can cook soft and juicy beef, as in a restaurant, in an ordinary frying pan.
Put a frying pan on a fire and heat it well. This is a very important condition, otherwise the meat can stick to the dishes and will have an unattractive appearance. You should also pay attention that you do not need to add any fats and oils to the pan, because the meat was marinated in a small amount of olive oil. When the pan is heated, put a piece of meat on it and start the frying process.
Cooking time directly depends on the selected roast. If you want meat with blood, then just fry it for 4 minutes on each side, and you can serve it to the table. For average frying, beef is additionally cooked for another 8 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees, and for the maximum degree of readiness to keep meat in the oven, it takes 12-15 minutes.
This is the end of the meat cooking process, as you can see, everything is extremely simple and quick, you can serve steaks to various side dishes and salads.
Note! Properly fry steaks only by turning them over once. That is, put in a pan, waited 4 minutes, turned over and put in the oven. Turning over the meat again is prohibited, it will turn out less juicy and tender.
What can be cooked from beef for the second
From this type of meat there are a huge number of different dishes. The average person likes simple and understandable food, so you can cook beef steak, as in a cafe or restaurant. Initially, a steak was called a whole fried piece of meat from the head of the tenderloin, but now very often there are varieties of ground beef, it is from this product that this recipe will be.
For cooking, you should take: 400 g of quality ground beef, salt, pepper, rosemary. It is recommended to serve vegetables as a side dish. You need to take: 100 g eggplant, 100 g bell pepper, 100 g tomato and 120 g mushrooms.
How to cook steak
First of all, you need to season the meat with the necessary ingredients and stir it well. Two large meatballs should be made of minced meat about 3 cm thick. Eggplant should be cut into thin slices, pepper into strips, mushrooms cut into 2-4 parts, and tomatoes in half. Transfer all vegetables to a bowl, season them with a small amount of vegetable oil and herbs, and soy sauce can be used if desired.
Put the pan on fire by adding a little vegetable oil. When it warms up well, you can start frying. Cook the steak for 10-12 minutes for medium frying. In this case, the meat can be turned several times.
When the meat is ready, the pan needs to be washed and fry all vegetables on it. It is recommended to fry them not very long, so that they are ready on the outside, and inside have a slight crunch. This degree of preparedness of vegetables is called al dente.
Note! Tomatoes are quite difficult to fry, you can miss the moment when they turn from whole vegetables into porridge. Therefore, they should be cooked for 2-3 minutes, no more.
Now you know how to cook beef steak to make it really juicy and tasty. Also, a small amount of deep-fried or in a pan of potatoes can be served with the dish.
Beef chops
In this case, the recipe is not much different from ordinary chops. Beef meat must be cut into slices of about 100 g and beat well with a culinary hammer. Salt and add pepper. To quickly cook this dish from beef, you should make a simplified version of the breading.
In a deep bowl, mix the flour and two eggs, add a little salt, mix. The consistency of batter should turn out like thick sour cream. Put a frying pan on the fire, add a little butter (can be replaced with vegetable oil), fry the chops on both sides for several minutes. Top should get a golden brown. Do not overdo the meat in the pan as soon as the desired color of batter is achieved - the preparation of soft beef chops will end. As in the previous case, serve the dish with vegetables and potatoes.
Delicious Entrecote Recipe
By and large, the cooking process is not much different from the previously described steak cooking recipe, but in this case an unusual marinade will be used. For cooking, you should take:
- thin rib cut beef meat - 800 g;
- soy sauce - 50 ml;
- a few cloves of garlic;
- 1 g ground ginger;
- red and black ground pepper;
- vegetable oil.
Beef cooking
Step-by-step process of cooking beef entrecote (as in good restaurants):
- Cut the meat into pieces of about 200 g and put them in a deep container.
- In a separate bowl, mix soy sauce, chopped garlic, ginger, several types of pepper, vegetable oil and very little salt (it should be remembered that soy sauce itself is quite salty).
- Pour the meat with the resulting marinade and put it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Before preparing beef entrecote, it should be understood that the longer the meat is pickled, the more tender it will be after heat treatment.
- Put on the fire a grill pan (you can use an ordinary one) and, without pouring oil on it, fry the meat in a pan for 4 minutes on each side. Bring to readiness in the oven. The duration of cooking in the oven depends on the degree of cooking.
What to cook quickly with beef
If you do not have much time for pickling, processing products and other technological processes, then in this case you can cook a delicious dish of meat and mushrooms in a gentle sauce. When choosing what can be cooked from beef to the second, it is recommended that you pay attention to this recipe. To prepare it for four people, you will need to take:
- 600 g of beef cue ball or any other non-fat part of the carcass;
- 300 g of champignons;
- 1-2 bulbs;
- 50-70 g of ketchup and sour cream.
Cooking should begin with slicing the meat, it must be cut into strips, the same slicing should be in the onion. Then wash the mushrooms and cut them into slices. Put a frying pan on the fire, fry a little meat on it, then add onions and mushrooms, cook everything for another 5-7 minutes. Then add the necessary amount of sour cream and ketchup to the pan, mix everything and bring to taste using salt, pepper, rosemary and any other favorite spices. Simmer a few more minutes and can be served.
Marble beef
Many people simply don’t know how to cook marbled beef in a pan to make it tender and juicy; they believe that an expensive product should be handled in a special way. In fact, everything is much simpler, this product is much more difficult to spoil, since it has incredible tenderness.
The cooking process is exactly the same as with a regular steak; you must marinate the meat in exactly the same way. The only thing - you should not add a lot of spices, it is enough to use salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and thyme. Otherwise, this type of meat will have a pronounced flavor of seasonings, and you will not be able to fully enjoy such an expensive product. It is also not recommended to use a degree of readiness above medium, otherwise there will not be noticeable special differences between regular and marbled beef.