After feeling guilty about not cooking much at all over the weekend, I decided to brave the heat and stroll down to Woolworths and buy some steak for my Argentinian black and blue steak. It actually wasn’t too hot, but after all my impulse buys as well it was a bit of a weight lifting session walking back up the hill. Whee, exercise.
So, this recipe was basically all about the sauce. Marinade? I don’t know. Anyway, Chimmichurri. It’s a green herb mix with a bit of chilli and a ton of olive oil. It sounds so super boring, that as I was making it, I thought I’d better set out the BBQ sauce just in case. I was so wrong. Dave and I ate this meal like it was out last, and it’s one of those comforting meals where you feel loved after eating it and want to have a little nap and maybe stroke your own skin for a while for comfort.
Chimmichurri:
Handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Handful coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 x red chilli, (AGAIN) finely chopped
2 x cloves of garlic, smooshed in a garlic smoosher
½ teaspn oregano (Use small handful of fresh if you can, but seriously, good luck with that)
1 teaspn balsamic vinegar
A shitload of olive oil
So, if these are all chopped and smooshed to taste, simply mix all together in a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste, and leave it there to mature in the fridge.
I used the Jamie Oliver garlic press to smoosh my garlic. Now, let me tell you something about these little bastards. I’ve used cheap ones, and expensive ones. Jamie’s is middle of the road, and I was heartened to watch one of his shows and have him say ‘With my press, don’t worry about peeling the garlic too thoroughly, it’s so easy to clean’ BULLSHIT. These things, are not easy to clean. No matter what tools have come with them to scrape and brush the garlic bits out of the grid, you ALWAYS have to shove your finger in there and fish it out. And yes, your hands will stink for ages. I use a lavender soap, kind of reduces the garlic stink. Unless you like smelling like that. Smooshing garlic makes it taste so different to chopping or slicing it, so it’s a necessity, but godamnit don’t listen to Jamie Oliver, just peel the damned clove first.
So, the beef. I used a 700gm rump, trimmed and dried. I dried it with paper towels, and then left it to dry a bit on a plate in the fridge for about two hours. The reason? I’m trying to make ‘black and blue’ steak, which is essentially burnt on the outside, and rare inside. Did this occur? No.
What happened was, I removed all the moisture like a champ, kept the meat in the fridge, re-dried it when I went to cook it, had nice hot pan etc… Then I realised it was about 40 degrees in my kitchen, and that was before I turned on the stove. This is not conducive to cooking black and blue steak. What I got was medium steak with blackened edges.
Don’t worry though, it was AMAZING still. I think this will be on my regular rotation, cos it was so quick and easy to cook, and the chimmichurri was simple to prepare earlier.
P.s it was amazing on a warm Turkish bread roll, which if you don’t try, you might as well have not bothered.
