Cooking (Probably) The Most Flavorful Steak in the World

Bistek tagalog is a classic Filipino dish of delicious steak marinated in umami-packed goodness that is seared, braised, and served in a rich savory sauce over rice. And honestly, we could eat it weekly. Well, I found a few ways to make it even better using a few insider cooking techniques. Let's start by slicing up the beef. Sound good? Let's cook. I've got about three pounds of boneless pasture-raised ribeye steak. Now this has excellent intramuscular fat, or as us old-school guys call it, marbling, and has a wonderful fat cap around the outside for more tenderness and flavor. Now while the more traditional cut would be a sirloin, my good friend Sam, who's Filipino, said ribeye would be insane for this and perfect for the cooking technique that I want to do. However, if you're looking to spend a little bit less, a flank steak or even a skirt steak, both thinly sliced, would be excellent options. Now to prepare the steak, we're just going to remove it from the plate, set it on the cutting board, and then I want to thinly slice it. The best options to do this are using a chef's knife or a boning knife. I'm going to use the latter. Now start about the middle to third of the way down the steak and slice it as thin as possible on a wide bias for very thin, very big cuts. Now don't worry, they will absolutely shrink up when searing, so if they seem to be a little big to you, don't sweat it. And just continue to slice the steaks until you've used up everything. Now if you do come to those bigger chunks of fat around the outside, feel free to cut them away, or even on the inside, just remove them and continue to work around and thinly slice. What we're going to do at this stage is just set it to the side on a plate. And don't worry, all that fat will render out when we sear it. And because we just cut up a bunch of raw beef, I'm going to clean the cutting board with some hot water and soap. And now for the marinade, I have a large bowl and I'm adding in a half cup of Filipino soy sauce, which is also known as toyo. Now you can pick this up from an Asian market or order it online, but the closest thing you'll get in a local grocery store is going to be dark soy sauce. However, regular soy sauce will work just fine as well. Just make it easy on yourself and use what you've got. The recipe will still be incredible. Now the next ingredient is called a calamansi, which is essentially a Filipino lime and can be quite hard to find if you don't have an Asian market nearby. So some great substitutes are lemons or limes, or perhaps like what I'm going to do, you can use a combination of both. I'm just going to quickly slice these and I'm going to extract as much juice as possible using one of these citrus extractors. So I use two limes and one lemon, which gets you right to that third cup mark, which is exactly what I'm looking for. Next up, I'm going to finely grate in four cloves of garlic. Then I'm going to finely grind in about three quarter teaspoon of black pepper. Now, Sam did say this is a big time underrated ingredient. And after testing this quite a few times, I have to say I completely agree. Now next up, I'm adding in two teaspoons of sugar. Now, commonly this is added at the end when making the sauce. But if I add a little bit in the beginning, it will make the meat more flavorful and add in the searing to get that beautiful brown maillard we're going to be looking for. Now, of course, like I always say in all my marinades, give it a taste. Immediately you could see how this would be so good with beef. The umami from the soy, the citrus, the garlic, the pepper, the sugar for the little bit of sweetness. Like all those flavors combined, you gotta taste it. That's how you become better cooks. You know where things are at at every single stage. All right, let's throw the beef in. At this stage, I'm going to add in the meat and gently mix it together, making sure not to tear apart any of those thin slices. We want them intact and as big as possible. Next up, I'm just going to cover it with plastic wrap and put in the fridge to marinate for as little as one hour and up to 24 hours. Remember, the longer the marinade, the better. For me, I'm going overnight, which is going to be about 12 to 16 hours. And when you're ready to cook it, let's take it out. Looks and smells so good. We're just going to let it sit at room temperature just for a little bit to help take the chill off. But in the meantime, I'm going to show you how to make the most perfect rice of all time. In a two quart sauce pot, I'm going to add in three and three quarters cup of water. Just going to crank the heat up to high. What we want to do is bring it to a boil. However, in the meantime, there's a great cooking technique I learned from a good friend from Egypt. We're going to toast up two cups of jasmine rice for five to six minutes in a two quart pot over low-medium heat. We're just going to stir it every 30 to 45 seconds. Now, this process will help reduce cook time, it adds flavor, and prevents clumping. Now, I asked Sam about a traditional side dish outside of rice for the bistec. And he told me in Filipino cuisine, if there's another side dish, it's considered a main entree. So no need to do anything else. Now, when the rice is done cooking, it should look milky white like this. On the right is uncooked, and on the left is that toasted up milky colored toasted rice. Perfection. All right, once the water is boiling, we're going to add it right to the pot of rice. We're going to stir it and gently season it with a little salt to season it up. Then just simply add on a lid, cook it over low heat for 12 to 14 minutes. That's all. Once it is done cooking, remove the lid, and then using a fork, we want to fluff it up to break it up. And as you can see, no clumping whatsoever. Love this technique. And because I always want to make cooking more enjoyable, I'm going to try a little bit. Yep, it's perfect. All right, lid back on. We're going to set it to the side, and this can easily hold like this for up to 45 minutes. Let's head back over to the beef, and it's Dr. Chef Parisi time. We are going to strain it. So take out that beef, add it right to the strainer over that bowl. We want to preserve as much of that liquid as possible, and dry out the meat for a touch better sear. Plus that liquid in the bottom, we're going to use it in just a little bit. But first, another main ingredient to prep up are going to be onions, and commonly yellow or red are used. But for me, I'm going for sweet onions, and two of them. Now my main reason for using these onions is they're served a little bit on the rarer side, and sweets have way less of that onion bite that you get from yellows and reds. So after you slice off the ends and peel it, we're going to slice them thick, but don't break them up. Leave them whole like this. I'll explain why in just a second, but first let's smash and finely mince up two garlic cloves. All right, now it's time to cook, and pay close attention because this is going to move very fast. In a large carbon steel or cast iron skillet, I'm going to add in two to three tablespoons of a high smoke point oil, and for me it's going to be avocado. I'm going to turn the heat to high to medium high-ish, and once it begins to lightly smoke, we're going to add in those onions. Keep them whole, and we're just going to sear them on one side for about two minutes completely untouched. Them holding together will ensure at least one side develops a nice brown caramelized color across the whole thing. All right, let's come back with a spatula, flip it. Yeah, just that little bit of brown like this, this little technique adds so much more flavor to the final end of this dish, but it will still hold on to that coveted crunch that everyone wants. What we're going to do at this stage is set the onions to the side, and then let's head back over to the pan. Be sure there's enough oil to completely coat the bottom, and another key step is to make sure the smoke is rolling like this, and I'll tell you why in just a second, but first let's start to add in those marinated slices completely across the pan. Now we're only going to cook this for 20 to 30 seconds per side, so this pan needs to be insanely hot. We're looking for some browning, some of that maillard, even if it's just a little bit around the outside edges. This just means more flavor into the dish. Hot pan, don't forget. Now the beautiful thing about using ribeye is this is all the cooking that it'll need. It's already a very tender cut. No need to cook it past this point. It'll be juicy, tender, and loaded with flavor. Now of course you have to do this in batches unless you have the largest pan on earth, but it does cook so quickly. It really only takes about 10 minutes or so, and if you need more oil in between sears, add a little bit. No problem at all. Also I have to ask, why when you cook does one hand always go on your hip? I promise you do this too. You may not realize it. Just think about it the next time you're stirring something. It's hilarious, and if you want you could also broil out and flip the steak with some tweezers, but eh, tongs are just fine. Now once all the meat is done cooking, let's set it to the side on a plate. We're gonna add in a touch more oil, maybe just a teaspoon or so, and let's add in those two cloves of finely minced garlic. Turn the heat down to low. We're gonna cook it just until it becomes fragrant, which only takes about 30 to 45 seconds. Now let's add in the leftover marinade, but we still need more sauce here, so I'm hitting it with an additional quarter cup of that Toyo Filipino soy sauce, the juice of one lemon, one teaspoon of sugar, and instead of the classical water, I'm adding in one and a half cups of beef stock. I've got an awesome recipe you can check out if you want. This will just make it so much richer. Now last but not least, don't forget a little bit of pepper. I'm gonna grind in about a quarter teaspoon. Now what we're gonna do is crank the heat up to high and boil for two to three minutes to reduce and concentrate those flavors. Now traditionally, this is when you would add back in the cooked sirloin because it's a tougher cut of meat. It needs time to tenderize. Now in the meantime, I'm gonna make a slurry of three tablespoons of corn starch mixed with three tablespoons of water. I want the sauce to be a little bit thicker so that it completely coat everything. I don't want it watered down. It's too delicious just to sink through to the bottom. So let's take the slurry back over to the cooktop. Sauce smells amazing. We're gonna add in the slurry and it will immediately thicken up and in the end you'll have a very rich sauce that has beautiful viscosity just like this. And be sure to try it just like everything. Now at this stage, we're gonna add back in the beef and the onions and we're gonna gently fold them together. The onions while doing this will break up naturally which is what we want. Once it's completely coated, you know I have to try a little bit out. That is ridiculous. Oh my god. And now to plate this up. You can absolutely serve it right on a plate or you can do it in a bowl. Totally up to you. Now it's very classic for those onions to be served right on top. Perfectly brown, nice crunch still happening here. And of course, why not a little bit more sauce? And in not so classic nature, I'm just gonna hit it with a punch of green so some sliced green onions are going on top. No harm, no foul done. And of course, don't forget to serve it with the rice on the side or you can serve the bistec right on top. It's totally up to you. But regardless, it's time to get in this. Quick, easy, and always a crowd pleaser. Now if you're craving more of those Filipino flavors, my chicken adobo is a must try. Check out my recipe video. I'll see you on there. Oh dude, with the onion.