My options for cooking have been very limited, especially with very little counter space, a relatively small stove top, and most of all, because there is a fire/smoke detector merely 14ft from the stove. Well, just having a fire alarm go off isn't so bad, it happened all the time back in my old apartment at UCLA, except the alarm would always be isolated to my apartment. Here, if the alarms go off in your room, the entire building needs to evacuate. How embarrassing right? I don't want to make people leave from their studies to stand outside in the cold for 10 minutes because I was cooking dinner!
I had suddenly started craving steak the last week, as the only type of meet I had in the freezer was chicken and the closest thing to anything cow that I had eaten lately were the mediocre cheeseburgers from the campus cafeteria. So, since I was at Trader Joe's this past Monday, I decided to buy a few ribeye steaks! I thought, I'll just make them in my oven, and hopefully it won't be so smokey. Pan searing it first won't be an option, since it'll just be a mess of smoke, and it's debatable whether or not pan searing actually seals in the juices anyways (Steak Perfection)
Needless to say, the whole experience wasn't as smooth as I had expected. Midway through broiling the steak in the oven, I heard loud crackling from the dripping fat hitting the hot pan beneath. I went over to check to make sure my kitchen wasn't smoking up and immediately saw a steady stream of smoke coming up from the oven through the stove-top slots. Time to turn on the exhaust! Okay, that's under control. After 10 mintues, it was time to take my steak out, and upon opening the oven door, a mass of smoke came out! I quickly shut the door thinking, "Oh no, am I going to leave that thing in there until all the smoke clears? No way! My steak's going to be dry and inedible by then!" I got my oven mitten ready, took a breath, opened the oven door, took out the steak, closed the oven door, and set the hot pan onto the stove top, all in one smooth string of actions!
I left the exhaust on the entire time I ate my steak. Constant fan noise in the background, but at least I knew the smoke was slowly dissipating and kept away from the fire alarm!!
Nice and red! =) For anyone interested, oven was preheated at broil level, I marinated the steak and placed on top of a metal rack on top of a regular baking pan. I left the steak in the oven for 5min, turned the oven off, and left the steak in there for another 5min, giving a nice medium rare steak!
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