When we celebrate a special occasion (at home), or splurge for a date night (at home), or find a great deal on good-lookin' ribeyes... this is how we do it...
What we look for: good "marbling" in the meat, a thick steak, and fresh looking meat.
How I prepare them: generously salt/pepper the steaks on both sides, allow them to come to room temperature for at least an hour before grilling them, and talk to them nicely... they like to be talked to.
Then I pre-heat the stove top grill... it's a griddle pan that stretches out over 2 burners. And I set the burners to just over "medium" heat. I allow the griddle pan to warm up for about 5 minutes until it just starts to smoke. The steaks get transferred to the griddle... and grilled to our desired done-ness (in our opinion, this should only ever be "medium-rare"). (As you can tell, I didn't include pics of the grilling steaks - I'm sure you know what that looks like...)
Tonight we were celebrating a week into a new job for my hero-of-a-hubby. So, we threw in the scallops too...
How we do scallops: tonight I cooked bacon to go with the baked potatoes, so I left about a tablespoon of bacon grease in the pan. Then I added two pats of butter and heated the griddle until nice and hot, but before the butter started to brown.
(Oh wait - it's important to pat the scallops dry on both sides with a paper towel - this helps with the browning.)
Just slightly salt one side of the scallops and gently place into the hot saute pan (salt side down - you can salt/pepper the other side while they are cooking). And then don't touch the scallops for at least 2 minutes... you might want to, but don't do it. While they are cooking, but don't touch those scallops... you'll want to do something... so now you can slightly salt/pepper this side of the scallops. OK, ready?!
After 2 minutes, gently nudge the scallops off the bottom of the skillet with a pair of tongs - and flip over in the saute pan. (They might stick slightly - so move slow and gentle.) Since scallops cook rather quickly they don't need much more time. After flipping them over, they only need about 1 1/2 minutes.
Oh, and for the potatoes... a couple years ago I found Alton Brown's take on the perfect baked potato. I've been making them this way ever since.
Now, pardon me... we're off to celebrate and "do our thing"... I love my life! (and I love my husband! And I'm so proud of him... )
enjoy your time in the kitchen...
I learned how to use olive oil & kosher salt on potatoes when I helped in the kitchen at Hume Lake. I do put them on a baking sheet, but other than that I do them the same & love them that way!
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