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The Steakhouse 50 · make it at home

The steakhouse porterhouse, with creamed spinach

1 hour 15 minutes, plus 1 to 24 hours salting · Serves 2 to 3

How New York's old steakhouses do it at home: a thick porterhouse salted ahead, seared hard in cast iron, finished in a hot oven, rested, sliced off the bone and sent back to the table sizzling in butter, with the creamed spinach every steakhouse puts beside it.

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The real one

You need

• 1 porterhouse steak, 2 inches (5 cm) thick, about 2 1/2 lb (1.1 kg), dry-aged if you can get it
• 2 1/2 tsp kosher salt (about 1 tsp per pound of steak)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp neutral oil (grapeseed or canola)
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, for the plate
• Flaky salt, to finish
• For the creamed spinach: 2 lb (900 g) fresh spinach, thick stems removed
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (30 g) finely grated Parmesan
• A pinch of grated nutmeg
• Salt and black pepper

How to make it

1. Salt ahead: pat the steak dry and salt it all over, edges too. Set it on a rack over a plate, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to 24. The salt goes in and the surface dries, which is what gives you a crust.
2. Take the steak out 45 minutes before cooking. Heat the oven to 450°F (230°C) with a rack in the middle.
3. Make the spinach first. Blanch it in a big pot of salted boiling water for 30 seconds, drain, run under cold water, squeeze it very dry in a towel and chop it finely.
4. In a saucepan melt 2 tbsp butter over medium heat, cook the shallot and garlic 2 minutes until soft but not brown, stir in the flour and cook 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and cream a little at a time and simmer, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes until it coats a spoon. Stir in the spinach, Parmesan and nutmeg, season, and keep warm over the lowest heat.
5. Heat a 12-inch cast-iron pan over high heat for 5 minutes until it just smokes. Pat the steak dry again, oil it lightly and lay it in. Sear 3 to 4 minutes without moving it until deeply browned, flip, and sear 3 minutes more. Stand it on its bone edge for 1 minute to render the fat.
6. Move the pan to the oven. Roast 6 to 10 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the strip side reads 120°F (49°C) for medium-rare. The tenderloin side cooks faster, so check both.
7. Rest the steak on a board for 10 minutes. Meanwhile put a heatproof platter in the oven to get hot.
8. Cut the strip and the tenderloin off the bone, slice each across the grain about 1/2 inch thick, and lay the slices back against the bone on the hot platter. Drop the 3 tbsp butter on top with the resting juices, a few grinds of pepper and flaky salt, and bring it to the table sizzling with the spinach.

Tips

• No thermometer? Press the thickest part: medium-rare feels like the base of your thumb when you touch thumb to middle finger.
• Spoon the sizzling butter back over each slice as you serve it, the way the waiters do.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any restaurant's recipe.