When you’re cooking steak, it’s all about the quality of the meat. If you have the right cut, you will rarely get it wrong. But sadly, some people overcook the meat to death, and it becomes leathery and hard to chew. A good piece of meat needs care and respect. Luckily, our undercut — as a filet is known here — is excellent. However, steak made with this cut can never have the flavour you get in the UK, for example. The reason? A good butcher in the UK will hang his meat in a special cabinet for up to five weeks at a temperature of around seven to eight degrees Celsius. This will cause a lot of the moisture to evaporate, the meat to soften, and the flavour to concentrate. Because of the moisture loss, the weight is reduced, and a properly hung filet can cost over 50 pounds per kilo.

At this price, you don’t want to overcook your steak, but preparing one is simplicity itself. Take the meat out of the fridge 15 minutes before you cook it, rub it with oil, or preferably softened butter, some salt and pepper and cover it with cling foil. Heat a ridged pan or a heavy frying pan over a high flame until it is almost smoking, and then throw on the steak. Cook for between three to four minutes on each side, depending on thickness, and then allow it to rest for a further five minutes. If you want to create a sauce, one simple method is to put a half-cup of cream plus a tablespoon of mustard into the same pan, and stir the mixture around quickly. Pour on to the steak before serving.

Of course there are several ways to season, marinade and cook steak, and there are many sauces you can serve it with. I often use crushed garlic and soya sauce in a marinade. When the steak is done, I deglaze the pan (i.e., scrape off the burnt bits at the bottom using a little red wine, but you can use red wine vinegar), add some butter, a bit of water, salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of flour, and cook over a high heat until the sauce thickens to half its original volume.

How do you like your steak — rare, medium or well done?

Another way of making steak for four to six people is to marinade a whole filet, and place it in a hot oven. Allow it to cook for around eight minutes, although a meat thermometer would be helpful here. Take it out, and make a cut in the middle: if it’s pink, remove it and cover in foil to let it rest for around 10 minutes while you prepare a sauce. If you want your steak rare, it should be more red than pink. When you are ready to serve, slice the filet into steaks. Be generous with the thickness.

Commercial meat dryers have enough space for a whole carcass, and I always wondered about small cabinets for homes. My son Shakir solved this mystery for me when he stayed with a friend in Dubai, and sent me a photo of a meat dryer that could accommodate a few kilos of meat. I asked him to check with his friend where he got it from, and how much he had paid for it. Back came the answer: Germany, and 3,500 Euros. Sadly out of my reach, but I live in hope …

I have a horror of well-done steak, and flinch when a dining companion asks for one in a restaurant. At home, I discourage guests from asking me to cook such an abomination. As I said earlier, high quality meat deserves respect.

Take the meat out of the fridge 15 minutes before you cook it, rub it with oil, or preferably softened butter, some salt and pepper and cover it with cling foil. Heat a ridged pan or a heavy frying pan over a high flame until it is almost smoking, and then throw on the steak. Cook for between three to four minutes on each side, depending on thickness, and then allow it to rest for a further five minutes.

Most of this piece has been about filet, but this cut, while very tender and expensive, has little flavour. For flavour, look for sirloin or T-bone. Half jokingly, a reader recently wrote that he didn’t care for my monthly pieces on food as he was a vegetarian. But after a lifetime of carnivorous eating, I can only feel sorry for those who have never tasted a succulent steak.

Published in Dawn, EOS, November 12th, 2017