I’m not sure why, but I crave the same thing every Valentine’s Day: a good steak.

Back in College, I was a vegetarian for a few years. It wasn’t particularly difficult for me- because I was never a big meat eater. Now, of course, I embrace almost all types of meats. And although we try to keep our diet to mostly fish and chicken, there are simply times when nothing but a steak will do.

I know there are tons of methods out there on cooking the “perfect steak”. Today I’m sharing our method with you. I learned this from my husband- and let me tell you, he knows his steaks.

Our Way to Perfect Steak

First, and most important- chill the steaks. Sometimes, on particularly hot Summer days, we even freeze them, but a good chill is really what you need.

Brush your skillet / grill / grill pan with a very thin coating of extra virgin olive oil. Heat over high heat. You want to get it very, very hot. Smokin’! This will help keep your steaks from sticking.

Put steaks in hot pan / on grill. Don’t touch or move them. Wait until teeny tiny drops of blood start showing on the surface. As you wait, start counting… depending on the thickness of your steaks, you want to know how long this takes.

Immediately turn steaks over. Again, do NOT move them. Count up to the same amount of time it took for the blood to show on the first side.

Remove from heat. Let sit for ten minutes, then season well with kosher or sea salt and/or fresh cracked black pepper, if that’s your thing.

* If you want fancy grill marks on your steak, you’re allowed to pick it up after a minute or so, and rotate slightly.