Cooking the Perfect Steak at Home - Ribeye with Portabello Reduction and Roasted Mash Potatoes

With the ever increasing food prices in Singapore restaurants, it is no wonder there is a great sense of dissatisfaction among locals when it comes to eating out.

And what is worse, paying premium prices does not necessarily get you great food. Heck, sometimes, you will be lucky to get even half decent food at those astronomical rates.

Take Ruth's Chris steakhouse for example. Paying $150++ per head just to have a standard steak and potatoes dish is just ridiculous.

That is why I want to share with you all the benefits of cooking steak at home. Something which will not burn a hole in your pocket, and in many ways, you will get superior food to a steakhouse that has been way overhyped.

I like to pick out my steaks from NTUC Finest, simply because Culina usually are quite reasonable and far more affordable than dedicated butcheries, and let's face it, great steaks is not just about how good the beef cut is, but how good you cook it.

Forget all the Wagyu nonsense that seems to be permeating our food industry, it is just extra fat that suppliers disguise as quality. A decent Ribeye from Australia is more than good enough.

Let's start with the garnishes. First up, mashed potatoes. Something so simple that is generally ignored, and almost no one makes it at home these days.

Instead of boiling your potatoes, I prefer to cut it in smaller chunks and roast it at about 160 deg for an hour until they are fragrant and tender. The aroma of roasted potatoes cannot be understated.

If you have a mash potato masher, then use that to crush the roasted potatoes. Otherwise, you can use a blender to mash them instead, and I prefer to leave the skin in as well.

Add in a cup of milk and a knob of butter and some seasoning to complete the potatoes. I also like to add in some chopped spring onions to give it a bit of a kick and texture as well. Gives it some color too.

For greens, I prefer to just pan fry a packet of spinach (serves 2) in just a tinge of olive oil and finish it off with a seasoning of nutmeg and pepper. Keep it simple as the greens is there just to add some balance to the dish and does not need too strong a flavor.

Next, prepare the sauce. Add about 4 portabello mushrooms to some olive oil in a pan and cook down the mushrooms until the liquid is extracted and the mushrooms are reduced.

Make a roux by melting a teaspoon of butter in another teaspoon of flour until they are well combined. Next, add ladle by ladle of beef stock until you get a nice thick yet smooth steak sauce. Add in some black pepper for some seasoning.

Set aside the sauce and prepare to cook the steaks. Always use a paper towel to pat dry the meat to ensure there is no liquid in the beef. Also, ensure the steaks are at roof temperature before cooking them.

In a pan, heat up some olive oil until they are piping hot. Next place the steaks in the pan and let them caramelize for about 2 minutes (based on steaks from Culina) then flip them over.

Add in a knob of butter and baste the steaks with the butter fat for another 2 minutes. The ribeye should be about medium rare at this point, which is the best way to eat a steak.

Remove the steaks from the heat and let them rest for about 2 minutes or more. In the meantime, take some of the delicious steak oil in the pan and add into the steak sauce that has been made earlier. About 3-4 spoons worth will do.

To plate, place the roasted mash at the bottom using a food ring if you have one, and followed by the spinach and finally, the steaks on top.

Drizzle the steak sauce around the dish and there you have it. A classic steak and potatoes dish that looks modern and simple, but every bite as delicious as it should be.

Do this home and save the money that you will otherwise have spent on food that will probably not taste as good as you make it at home.