steaksperiment

They're selling these absolutely beautiful filet cuts from Australia in my building's basement grocery. This is Korea, where beef is expensive as hell, but I still bought the above steak (weighing in at a measly 200 g) and, after waiting over a week, did a sous-vide experiment with it. Given how hectic and unpredictable our existence at the office is (thanks to an unpredictable—read: flaky—CEO), I can no longer announce an in-office meal because we never know when the CEO might call us in for a meeting. Still, I hope to do a meal for the troops one of these days, and tonight's steaksperiment was done in that anticipatory spirit. Three hours at 55ºC in the sous vide followed by a reverse sear (90 seconds on the first side, 60 seconds on the other side, then 30 seconds on two of the edges) produced the above beauty, which proved to be just as delish on the inside. Filet mignon is considered overrated by most beef connoisseurs, but if you season aggressively and have an awesome sauce at hand like my chimichurri, filet can kick some serious ass.

Since I want to do a surf-and-turf-themed meal (mashed potatoes and green-bean sides), I might be able to get away with serving everyone 200-gram steaks as long as I pile on the shrimp (which also goes well with chimichurri). So I might buy my filets from the local grocery. If I want to be more ambitious, though, I can request 300-gram cuts of filet from a butcher who, a couple months ago, showed me some very nice-looking filet cuts without the ugly blobs of intramuscular fat that detracted from the beauty of the steaks I'd bought last year when I had that party with Tom and an inebriated JW.

Not sure when to have a luncheon, but it'll happen. It's nice to know, in the meantime, that excellent steaks are available either downstairs in my building or from the butcher in the building where I work. Somehow, we'll make this work.