Why does your steak turn grey? Or why do your mushrooms start boiling instead of frying? It has to do with heat, space, and time. Let me first say that when I talk about a grey steak, I mean it turns grey while preparing it, if your steak turns grey before you even start, we have a whole different problem. You may need to get a new fridge, or even get a fridge in the first place and you need to throw that steak now! Get rid of it, order Chinese food or take a pizza out of the freezer, but no, a grey steak in your fridge is bad. Out!
So, heat, space, and time! Both steaks and mushrooms can be prepared in both oil and butter, if you like flavour, use butter. Some say butter is healthier anyway. Another advantage is that butter is easier to use. With butter, you can see when it is ready, with oil, it’s more of a guess. Let’s go with butter today.
Pan on a medium fire, butter in the pan. Let it melt, let it get foamy. The foam is your visual aid, as soon as it recedes, your butter is ready for either your mushrooms or your steak. So, while your butter is melting, dry your steak with some clean paper towel and season it with pepper and salt on one side. When doing mushrooms, you can cut them while you wait for the butter to melt. No need to use a cutting board, just slice or quarter them in your hand.
Has the foam receded? Lay your steak in the pan and direct it away from you, seasoned side down. Season the other side while it is in the pan. Now stop. Do not touch it, do not move it, do not shake your pan. Let it be there for a few minutes. You will hear the beauty of the sizzle; you will smell the aroma of gloriousness. When you think the one side is done, turn it around. If you are insecure, have a little peak, gently lift one side up and look for a nice brown colour. Is it brown? Turn it around and stop. Do not touch it, do not move it, do not shake your pan. By the way, nothing wrong with some insecurity, face it, you want a nice steak, not a grey one. And this is where I tell you why it can turn grey.
When your heat is hot, your butter is melted and your foam has receded, the temperature is perfect to singe your steak. You close it, seal it. No water can come in or out. This is also why you don’t move it. It needs time to seal the steak. Mess this up and your steak lets go of its water and it will be boiling instead of baking, and thus turn grey. You could have just microwaved it if you wanted this result. Once the steak is brown on both sides, lower your fire and keep baking it until it is as cooked as you like, turn around now and then.
Mushrooms! Same principle, after the foam has receded, add your mushrooms to the pan, but, and I will stress this, give them space! Only one layer of mushrooms. Hot butter, no foam, space, and time! Same as with the steak, after you put the mushrooms in the pan, do not touch them, do not move them, do not shake your pan. Let them be there for a few minutes. If all goes right, you will hear them singing, and it is one beautiful song! With the mushrooms, it’s easier to see if they are nicely coloured, and once they are, give the pan a nice stir. After this… Do not touch it, do not move it, do not shake your pan again. Mushrooms need their time. If you keep stirring them, they will get all insecure and they will let go of their fluids like anyone else would when they are being bullied. Don’t make them cry, let them sing! During the whole process, three or four stirs is more than enough.
And hey, no worries if this didn’t work on the first try, it’s ok, just put all your mushrooms and cut up steaks in a stew. We can still make a nice dish, but it won’t be steak and mushrooms. I will share a recipe for this another time. But I think the basic idea to take away from this paragraph is that everything is redeemable. Maybe not as you planned it, but still a nice meal.
Since this blog is not just recipes, but also aspires to hand out hope, I will close this recipe with a small thought. Steaks and mushrooms need heat, space, and time. So do we.
I need heat. I need to stay close to the church, I need my fellow believers around me to keep being on fire.
I need space. Everyone processes things differently, but I need to supply myself with space in my heart and head for the things above.
I need time. Nothing grows overnight, except for a few fast plants, I need time to be watered, to take in the sunshine and to root in the earth. Do not bully yourself into faster and faster or you may lose fluids regularly like the mushrooms.
Recipes of Hope 