Nigella Lawson has shared a money-saving tip for cooking steak that she says delivers a 'magnificent' flavour with 'better flavour' even when using cheap cuts. The cookery icon, who recently joined Channel 4's The Great British Bake Off as a new host, revealed the method in an interview with ABC News.
The vital ingredient for cheaper cuts
Lawson explained that while expensive steak needs nothing done to it and can be cooked very fast, cheaper cuts such as flank steak and skirt steak can taste even better. She said: "The thing about when a steak is expensive, the thing you can do is cook it very fast and it needs nothing done to it. Now these are two different cuts: that’s a flank steak, and that’s skirt."
She added: "But as you can see they don’t look quite as good. But the taste, I think is better. It’s magnificent. These cheaper cuts are often denigrated, but the cheaper cuts, as all our grandmothers knew, the flavour is better."
Time is the one ingredient you cannot buy
The key to making cheaper cuts work, according to Lawson, is an ingredient that cannot be bought - time. She noted that thinner, cheaper steaks are half the size and therefore half the price, and they cook faster.
She said: "A thinner steak, half the size, therefore half the price, which cooks faster. The difficulty is, in a way you can only save money when you’ve got one vital ingredient: and that vital ingredient is time. On the days you don’t have time, you can’t use a cheaper cut because it’s going to be tough."
How to cook Nigella's budget steak
To make Lawson's budget steak, heat a teaspoon of oil in a large frying pan, then cook the steak on high for one and a half minutes per side. Serve onto a warm plate, then sprinkle salt and pepper over to taste. Finally, squeeze lemon juice into the hot pan and let it bubble up with the meat-infused oil before pouring over the steaks.
Lawson also recommended marinating the meat first: "What you really need to do though, I think, is marinade it a bit, and put it with a bit of oil and a bit of soy sauce, maybe a spritz of lemon and leave it like that for a while. That slightly tenderises the meat, and then it’s best cooked slowly. You can grill them, but it’s best to tenderise them first."
