On a whim, we picked up a couple of small filets at the grocery store, and I pan seared them for us. The last time I tried cooking steak this way, it ended up burned on the outside and raw on the inside, so I looked up a recipe this time. Turns out that my main mistake was that I didn’t fill the pan with a quarter cup of oil. I found a description of how to go about steak searing, and it included a more detailed recipe as well.
The basic method is simple, just heat the oil on high until it starts smoking, then cook the steaks, flipping and basting regularly until they’re about 5 degrees cooler than you want, and then rest them for a few minutes. The recipe also included details like salting the meat beforehand, and adding aromatics and butter to the oil. But really, the copious amounts of hot oil covering all sides of the meat are the important part.
The steak was delicious, and I’ll definitely be using this method again.