Ingredients:

steaks (DUH!)
fresh smashed garlic
white pepper
butter
lemon juice

Directions:

Choose your favorite cut, but I recommend porterhouse or strip steaks for this method of cooking. They should be room temperature before cooking so set them out early.

Rub all sides of steak with fresh garlic cloves that have been smashed under a wide knife blade. For a more intense garlic flavor, you can finely mince the garlic and spread on one or both sides. Grind fresh white pepper on both sides. DO NOT SALT STEAK AT THIS POINT! If you use salt, wait until it is served. Salt does bad things to meat when it cooks.

Heat pan to the temperature of molten lava. If your stove can’t do this, heat as high as possible. Pan should sear meat as quickly as possible to seal in juices. If you have a pan with the raised grill lines, it will appear as if you cooked it outside. Cute little trick, that. Don’t forget to turn on your overhead fan; your smoke detector will thank you.

Right before cooking, drop a good sized pat of butter in pan. It should melt before you can blink your eyes. Immediately add steak to pan. Cook on one side for just over one-third of your normal cooking time. Flip steak and continue cooking, again for just over one-third of your normal cooking time.

Remove steak from pan and set on platter for carving, or plate to serve directly to table. Steak should sit for five minutes, allowing the juices to reabsorb into meat. If you don’t show patience here, Grasshopper, your steak will “bleed” when cut, allowing a lot of the juice to drain onto your plate. This is not a good thing, as it will make the meat tougher and less tasty.

This wait time is why I suggested you cook for less time than normal because your steak will continue to cook while sitting. And the more done you prefer your meat, the more it will cook as it sits. For people like me, who eat their steaks extremely rare, this isn’t quite as much of a problem. But no matter how rare you eat your steaks, let them sit for a few minutes before serving.

Just before serving, squeeze a small amount of lemon juice over steaks. Garnish with lemon wedges for those that want to add even more zip to their meal. DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP! It may seem unusual, but everyone who’s ever tried this recipe immediately falls in love with it.

Serve with a crisp salad. Adding tomatoes, onions and bleu cheese crumbles is a steakhouse favorite. Add blanched green beans, and some sauted mushrooms and onions, and you’ve got a true, steakhouse classic at home.

One last thing: if you like your steaks thicker than an inch and a half, but still want them somewhat rare, you can reduce the amount of time you sear them and finish the steak in an oven set at 400-450 degrees. This will allow you to sear the outside 1/4 inch and still bring the internal temperature up to your chosen level. I have a habit of buying steaks that are two or more inches in thickness. If I try to cook them on the burner alone, I end up with far too much “done” meat at the edges and not enough bright, blood-red in the middle. Finishing in the oven fixes this problem very well.

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