Embracing the carnivore diet trend with the perfect post-workout steak
When it comes to diet trends, Tiktok is usually the first to highlight them – with the latest being the carnivore diet, with hashtags surpassing a billion views.
The protein-packed diet has a following thanks to ‘meatfluencers’, who claim it has left them happier and healthier.
Known as the all-meat diet or zero-carb diet, this is an approach that involves consuming only animal products and excludes all plant-based foods, offering a wide range of macronutrients, vitamins and minerals in your diet.
Red meat such as steak is a rich source of complete protein, providing all the essential amino acids the body needs for functions, including building and repairing tissues.
Packed with protein and essential nutrients, it’s also the perfect post-gym fuel to replenish and repair your body after a hard workout.
Perfectly timed with British Beef Week, culinary director of Rare Restaurants, Mike Reid shares his top pieces of advice when it comes to producing simply brilliant beef.
He says: “Having been cooking at Gaucho since 2007, I’ve been fortunate enough to try some of the very best steak, but whenever anyone asks me for advice, tips and recipes, my answer is the same: keep it simple.”
1. Selecting your steak
Always start off with good meat. If you have good produce, then you’ve already won half of the flavour battle. I recommend using wet-aged beef like we do at Gaucho – this means the beef is hung for 24 to 48 hours, then cut and vacuum-packed and left for 21 to 28 days, making the meat very moist and full of flavour.
2. Seasoning is all-important
Don’t be afraid of salt. If you’re using a nice piece of wet-aged beef then, once placed on the grill, add loads of salt on top. I use a good Spanish salt like ‘leda’. As the steak cooks on the first side, the pores open up and absorb all the salt that it needs – so when you turn it over the excess salt falls away. This is a great trick that means you’ll never over-season your steak.
3. Cooking times – check the juices
Do you like your steak cooked rare/medium/well done? How long you cook a steak for depends on this as well as the size of the meat and the cut. Leaner meat takes a little less time as you don’t have as many fibres to break down – so a 200g fillet would take around 5 minutes on a grill on medium heat, then add two to three minutes for medium to well and another two to three for well done. This is a rough guide.
If you’re grilling steak you can always look at the change of colours of the juices as they cook. When it’s red with little brown freckles it’s medium-rare, an even mix of red and brown is medium. Brown with red freckles is medium to well. Completely brown juices are well done.
At Gaucho, we believe that every time you touch the beef you affect the quality, so try and avoid turning it continuously. We train our chefs to touch only twice once on the grill, to turn it and then to remove it.
4. Let your steak rest
Imagine you’re in a sauna – when you first go in you tense up but as soon as you come out you start to relax again. It’s the same with steaks and all meat. They tense up when cooking but when you leave it for a few minutes afterwards you allow the meat to become even softer and more tender. This is a must when cooking bigger cuts. You basically want to rest the steak for half the time you’ve cooked it.
5. Marbling means quality
Marbling is a good indicator of the quality of meat. Colour is the other thing to look for. It shouldn’t be bright red. If it is then it means it hasn’t been aged at all, most supermarket meat is slaughtered and in the shops within 36 hours.
You can find Guacho restaurants across London including the CityAM Recommended location at Covent Garden. Find it at 8-9 James Street, WC2E 8BT.