How do I cook steak? Never cooked it before?

My boyfriend and I, 21 years old, bought a condo together in October. I can cook a good handful of things but I'm not too familiar with cooking meat. My mom was a vegetarian and growing up we ate a lot of vegetable dishes. She would cook steak and other meat though for the rest of the family, i just never cared to learn how to cook it.



Well I bought steak the other night and I have no idea what to do with it. I bought small cuts of steak - Round sandwich steaks they're called. They're not paper thin like a Steak-Um would be. They're about a 1/2 inch thick. I picked those up becuase they had like NO white on them (the white is fat right?)



Now I have them home, I did not freeze them yet becuase I want to cook them tonight (they dont expire until the 17th of march). But I have no idea what to do with them!!

We have a grill but its charcoal and we have not mastered using it yet, so I'd like to stick with the oven or stove top.



Also, i dont want to put any kind of thick sauce on it or anything...maybe a light marinaid or something. I know my mom used italian salad dressing once or twice to marinaid the steak in. How would I do that?



Thanks so much!!How do I cook steak? Never cooked it before?
First off, fat is good. That's where the flavor comes from and keeps the meat juicy while cooking. You want a ';marbling'; of fat throughout the meat. Without it the steak will be tough and dry.



The cut you have is very lean and tends to cook up tough. All however is not lost. You can do several things here. First off, you could marinate the meat in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, pepper (no salt - the soy sauce is salty enough. Put all of this in a zip lock bag and let the steak sit in the marinade a few hours to overnight.



Don't be afraid of the grill. Build a small fire in there. Not raging heat but not too small either. Let the ashes turn grey and the fire to subside.



These steaks will cook fast over a normal charcoal fire, so you'll only need a few minutes of grill time on each side.



DO NOT OVERCOOK! You want the meat to have at least some pink in the middle. Overcooking will turn it to leather!



As an alternative, you could do the same marinade deal, but cook on the stove, in a heavy pan with some olive oil, a couple of teaspoons. Again, don't overcook.How do I cook steak? Never cooked it before?
Ok you are going to want to get a cast iron pan on med-high heat. While that is heating (only a few min) put some olive oil, salt, pepper and any other seasonings on the outside of the steaks. Place the stakes in the pan and DO NOT touch them. You want to let them sit on their side for a few min to let them get a nice sear. If it looks like they are getting to dark you can turn down the heat. You can flip them when there is juice collecting on the top of the steak. If it is blood red, they are rare. If it id a lot of red juice it is med, and if it is clear it is well done. Now just flip them and let the other side get some color.



P.S. You want A LOT of thin lines of white fat in the meat because that is called marbling. A well marbled peace of meat will taste better and be more tender. Most of that fat will cook away.
You need to marinate them. Pick a marinade from the store, like the McCormick ones in the packet. You will need to mix them with vinegar and oil. My favorite is the Montreal steak marinade. So let them marinate, preferably overnight, with some chopped onions and a little garlic. When that is done cook them in the oven on a very low temperature, like maybe 250. It is going to take a while but it will make them so tender. When you put the in the pan to cook make sure you drizzle them with the remainder of the marinade. Voila!
I sometimes marinate my steaks in Italian dressing %26amp; sometimes add soy and/or worcestershire sauce too, then I normally grill. You can marinate %26amp; then pan fry in butter. There's so many ways/recipes for steak, here is one:



1/4 cup soy sauce

2 teas. worcestershire

3 tbls. minced garlic

1 teas. garlic powder

1/2 teas. onion powder



Marinate for 30 minutes to overnight in plastic bag or something like that %26amp; then grill or pan fry in butter.



Look on http://www.recipezaar.com %26amp; on top of the page type in round steak recipes. There is a ton of recipes.
According to what I read those are fast fry



if they are flat and shinny I usually beat a couple eggs add salt and pepper to the egg and coat the meat with the egg than put the meat into bread crumbs and fry them in oil .If you get a marinating steak then you must make a marinate or simply use Italian salad dressing and let it marinate in there for 1 hours turning the meat at least once and keep it in the fridge until ready to cook , there are so many ways to cook steaks .



http://homecooking.about.com/od/beefreci鈥?/a>



http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pepper-Stea鈥?/a>
staring with the basics:

best steaks - 1) rib-eye 2) sirloin 3) t-bone

best method to cook - in a covered skillet until almost done then place on a charcoal grill for 30 seconds on each side. it leaves the steak moist inside with the grill flavor and the grill marks so it looks as good as it tastes. the rib-eye and sirloin have the right amount of marbling or fat to give it great flavor without it being a overly fatty steak. once you cook up a few this way you will never go back to steak-um.

marinade - a really good steak needs no marinade, it has lots of flavor all by it's self. a not so good steak can be covered with A-1, heinz 57, or some other steak sauce. i also like cooked onions and mushrooms in butter with garlic bread as a side and a sweet baked potato.
First, what you bought aren't really steaks, they are thin slices of a roast, probably eye round. That's a lean, rather tough cut of meat. Grocery stores push them as steaks so they can move less desirable cuts fast, since people see the word ';steak'; and go ';OOOOO!';, and think they are getting steaks at bargain prices.

They are going to have to be quick cooked, either on the grill or in a pan, or under the broiler. Season them with salt, pepper, and garlic (marinating works too) and cook them on high heat very quickly. It won't take long. You don't want these over done, or you will have shoe leather.