Buttering: Traditionally steaks have been served up with toppings to add flavor and make it a fancier meal. Mushrooms and onions sautéed in butter and garlic is a great topping, but there are so many options out there it’s impossible to name them all. One of the basic ingredients that works surprisingly well on a steak is butter. Butter adds a moist, creamy glaze to steaks without overpowering the flavor of the meat. By adding seasonings to the butter you extend the flavor. The key is to use your topping sparingly and to add flavors that make the steak better without hiding the it’s original flavor.
For instance, a basic steak topper could be softened butter mixed with green onions and crushed garlic. You want to use softened butter and not melted, since you want the topper to have a form so it can be easily spooned over top. After all, the steak will be hot when the butter hits it, so the butter will melt anyway. As that butter melts it will sink into the meat and spread over the surface creating even flavoring all over the steak.
Fruit & Salsa: Of course, you don’t have to rely on butter for your topper. Salsas work great. I’m not talking your typical store bought tomato salsa. A good salsa for steak should be chunky, fresh and relatively dry. By dry I mean not the sort of thing you can pour out of a bottle but the kind you spoon on. With any steak topper you want to spoon it over the steak, not pour it on, it’s not a sauce after all. To put together a great salsa for your steak start by picking a base. You can always go with tomatoes, or you can pick virtually any kind of fruit from apples to mango. Fruit adds a sweet flavor that really stands out on a steak. To your base add a leaf, like cilantro, Italian parsley, basil or something like that. This gives you a nice green color and a load of flavor. To this combination add garlic, onion, herbs, spices or whatever else you like. If you want to throw in some lime juice or similar liquid do so sparingly so you don’t end up with a sauce.
Cheese: Finally, a great topper is cheese. Of course the perfect cheese for a great steak is blue cheese, but you might like something else. A good cheese for steak topping is the kind your crumble, not the kind you slice so stick with something like gorgonzola, blue cheese, feta, or something along these lines. By mixing in some garlic, onion and something soft, like cream cheese or goat cheese to hold it all together.
Steak toppers add so much to a steak you really should give it a try and since there are so many options you can really make something uniquely your own without a lot of effort. Once you’ve served up some great steaks with a great topper you’ll really impress those guests and people will look at you in awe. I promise.
