A few months ago I bought myself a cast iron frying pan from Amazon. After cooking my Donald Russell steaks a couple of times the with the fry pan that came with the unit I thought that I can improve these. After re-watching one of my favourite episodes of Good Eats ‘Steak your claim’ and picking up one of Alton Brown’s books (the host of Good Eats) I started my next project, improving my steak!

First thing was to cure the new pan. A thorough washing to remove the factory oil preventing rust and any other crap it’s picked up on its way to me.

The after a completely covering the pan in vegetable oil it goes straight into a very hot oven for an hour and half to bake the oil to the surface of the pan. The process smoked out the entire house and set my smoke alarm off but it was necessary. Below is the pan after it’s baptism.

Now to start trying the Alton Brown cooking method. Steak at room temperature with a spray of oil and salt and pepper to each side of the meat. On to the preheated cast iron  pan for 30 seconds each side. I used my iPhone to keep track of the time.

Now another 30 seconds on the other side.

Now into a 260 degrees Celsius oven for 2 minutes each side. This will get you medium rare (the best way to enjoy steak) but another minute either side will finish the steak medium.

Once the steak has finished in the oven it will need to rest for a couple of minutes. I use 2 kitchen strainers so the juice can run out (which it will) without the steak sitting in them and losing its crispy finish.

After a couple of months and many streaks my pan has now got a nice black shine on it and barely smokes at all. It’s important to never wash the pan. I just pour some salt on while it’s still a little hot and rub it around, the same as you would on a BBQ. The salt will clean the pan as it’s gritty and also kill most bacteria.

Finally I use some aluminium foil to keep the pan covered as I keep it on top of my cupboards and don’t really want dust in my steak.

On the 28th Emily and I leave for 17 much-needed days in Cuba. All inclusive at a resort in Varadero, a couple of hours from Havana.

I’ll be sure to post back plenty of photos but the main focus of this trip is to relax and unwind. I’m planning to get loads of reading done and partake in my fair share of poolside cocktails. We’ll squeeze in a trip to Havana as well so I can check out the cool cars, pick-up some cigars and take in a Tropicana Club show.

I can’t wait.