Across Australia this weekend, thousands of barbecues will be lit up on Father’s Day to show appreciation for the paternal figures in our lives. To help you look like a pro and impress at the dining table this weekend, learn the best secrets and tips from two-time winner of best steak in the world chef Dany Karam of Black Bar & Grill at The Star.
Step 1: Must be good quality meat
Karam says you should talk and have a discussion with your butcher about getting better quality meat. He warns that bad quality meat will be either not tasty or chewy. As for what we cooked with and what has won best steak in the world two years in a row, “This is a strip loin, marble score 8. In wagyu there is full blood wagyu, which in Australia is only Angus Blackmore in Alexandra in Victoria. This is one from Jack Street called ‘F2’. F2 is 75% wagyu, 25% Angus, so they cross breed them with Angus. This is wet-aged for 28 days. Jack Street Farm its really amazing to have a local farm winning around the world. I’m really excited, and a great quality of steak as well.” Also make sure there is marbling, especially if its a wagyu cut, “it is unsaturated fat. So it’s a good fat. It’s flavour.”
Step 2: Pre-cooking preparation is hugely important
“Use a good quality salt” and set up a grill that is “always on a natural fuel”, Karam says. Dany uses Cherrywood and Ironbark for the fuel and continues, “Before you cook it, only season with salt. Salt and only salt as pepper will burn.” Black Bar & Grill use Murray River Pink Salt and Karam noted how the salt will also help to caramelise on the meat and make a crust as you sear it on high heat for 1 minute. “What I always do is bring it outside for 20 minutes and bring it to room temperature” since too quick of a change between cold and high heat will put stress on the meat.
Step 3: Keep the juices in
Avoid the meat getting dry at all costs – “You want to push that juice inside the meat, so you don’t want that juice to go out, if you leave it on one side for a long time, that juice will go out and you’ll lose all the juice of that meat and it’ll become tough. So what you do is, one minute on that side, maybe two depending on the thickness of the steak. One to two minutes the other side. You don’t leave it because the juice will go out.” Black’s grill surface is large, so from here he moves the steak away from the hotter flames and to a warmer area of the surface where he cooks it to liking over the course of 5-8 minutes continuously flipping. If you don’t have the luxury of having such an amazing, natural-fuel fired stove Dany says, “You start off on high heat, then you turn down the gas, lower it down” to use the residual heat of the pan versus the constant, strong gas-fuelled warmth.
This winning cut of wagyu steak that Dany Karam uses is exclusive to Black Bar & Grill’s menu at The Star in Sydney. For more information on their menu head HERE.
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