Diamond Cut Steak | Bonus Garlic Butter Steak Toast Recipe | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with diamond cut steak. That's right. I'm going to show you a very cool knife trick which can help turn the toughest, cheapest cuts of steak into something more tender, more flavorful, and I think we can all agree much cooler looking. And even though we're going to focus on the method, I am going to show you something very delicious later using a diamond cut steak. And to get started, I bought some top round. And since this piece was about 10 ounces, I decided to cut it in half, which I think gives us two perfectly sized portions. And then after dividing that, I decided to grab some plastic so I could pound this out a little bit. Since from what I hear, this technique is intended to work on meat that's about a quarter inch thick. So I briefly worked those two pieces over with the meat pounder until they were just a little bit thinner. Oh, and the reason I chose top round steak is because it's very cheap and has a nice beefy flavor, but it also tends to be pretty tough and kind of chewy. So, I thought it was the ideal choice to give this technique a try. Oh, and since cold meat is always easier to cut, we will want to keep any pieces we're not working with in the fridge. And then as far as the actual diamond cutting technique goes, all we need to do is make some 45deree angled cuts about halfway through the meat, spacing them every quarter inch or so. And while you can slice a little more than halfway through, the only way to mess this up would be to cut all the way through. So be careful not to do that. Otherwise, you'll just end up with strips of meat and then you'll have to convince everyone you meant to do a stir fry in the first place. And then what we'll do once we finish cutting the first side is flip it over and we will double check we know exactly which way those slices are going because on the second side we're going to make the exact same cuts. But we need to do that at an angle across those cuts on the other side. All right. If you make the slices on this side in the exact same direction the technique will not work. But if you do it correctly as shown, when we are finished slicing both sides, we'll be able to sort of pull open the meat and wherever those cuts from each side intersected, we're going to have a small, probably diamond shaped hole. And that is how you diamond cut a steak. So, I went ahead and did that to the second piece, at which point I transferred both pieces into a very simple marinade that I made with some Korean chili paste, a little bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus a little bit of avocado oil, and above and beyond that, it makes the steak look super cool and is going to help tenderize a tougher cut. The other huge advantage of this is that we're creating a ton of extra surface area. And as I've said for many years, surface area equals flavor. So, I think this method is perfect for helping meat soak in marinades. But anyway, after coating those on both sides and seasoning both sides with salt, I popped those in the fridge for about 15 minutes. And then I placed a cast iron pan over high heat and got it nice and hot. And then I placed one of my diamond cut steaks in to see what would happen. And I knew this was going to cook fast, but I had no idea it was going to cook this fast. Okay, in just like 45 seconds, it was already cooking through, which makes sense because of all the holes. So, I went ahead and flipped it over. And yes, there are a lot of juices coming out, which is mostly due to the marinade. But I wasn't concerned because the first time I ever saw this technique, it was done on a dome-shaped Korean cast iron grill, and the piece of meat was bubbling exactly the same way. But anyway, after less than a minute on both sides, I went ahead and pulled that out of the pan and plated it up. And then because of those juices that had caramelized in the pan, I delazed with a couple tablespoons of water and I poured that over the top because I paid for those juices and I didn't want to leave that flavor in the pan. And then I grabbed a fork and knife so I could do the official test which I thought was fascinating. Okay, the flavor was great, which was not surprising. But what was surprising was just how tender this was. Right? There is no way I would have thought this was top round. This had more of the mouth feel like a New York strip. And yes, as you can see, this was pretty much cooked all the way through, which for a piece of meat this thin, cut with the diamond technique, is going to be very difficult not to do. But the great news is that's fine. This was extremely moist and juicy. And there was nothing tough or dry about it. Oh, and then speaking of juices, I had so much of that on the plate, I had to grab a couple pieces of bread and I sort of spped that up and then piled that meat up on one side. And then after soaking the other side of the bread, I made myself a nice little sandwich, which ended up giving me a great idea, which was to try this with another piece, which I decided not to pound. And I went ahead and did the same diamond cut to a thicker steak since I wanted to see how that would affect the texture. And I thought it would afford us a little more searing time in the pan. Since what I decided to do was a diamond cut garlic steak toast. So once I had my steak cut, I rubbed it with some oil and seasoned it very simply with salt and pepper. And I laid it in this searing hot, heavyduty sauté pan. And yes, thankfully we have a professional hood fan over our stove. Oh, and the reason I switched to this pan and not the cast iron is because I'm making a very simple garlic pan sauce. And that big cast iron pan is just too heavy to work with. But anyway, after violently searing that on both sides for about a minute, I turned off the heat and removed that from the pan and I quickly tossed in a knob of butter along with some minced up fresh garlic. And even though my pan was off, it was still super super hot. So, I only let that garlic go for about 10 or 15 seconds. at which point I delaze with a splash of water. And after letting that heat dissipate for a few seconds, I stirred that with a spoon, making sure to scrape all that goodness off the bottom. And there's a reason simple pan sauces are one of my favorite things to teach. Since it seems almost like a magic trick that we're taking a dirty pan with a bunch of burned on stuff, plus a little bit of water or stock and a chunk of butter, and somehow someway that can turn into an amazing sauce, which of course we need to season with a little bit of freshly ground black pepper and salt. Plus, maybe we'll toss in a little bit of freshly chopped Italian parsley, which could also be terrigon or maybe some thyme. And that's it. I plated up my slightly thicker diamond cut steak on a nice piece of toast. And then I spooned over that garlic butter sauce. And that, my friends, ended up being one of the most delicious garlic steak toast I've ever had. I mean, I couldn't even be bothered to eat with a fork and knife. I just cut it in half and picked it up and ate like the savage that I truly am. And thanks to this piece of round steak being cut slightly thicker, I was actually able to keep it a little bit pink, which made it even more succulent and juicy than the first test. And even though I did give you a couple serving suggestions, I really want you to focus on the technique itself and try this on your own with some nice cheap cuts of meat. And then you can start your own experiments using this in different types of recipes. I mean, you guys are after all the Edward Scissor Hands of what to do when your diamond cut steak is in your pans. But no matter what you end up making, I absolutely love this diamond cut technique. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.