Rump Steak, Hasselback Jersey Royals & Chimichurri Sauce
Chimichurri is a spicy South American take on a salsa verde and is wonderful with grilled meats and BBQ foods. It's best made about 30 minutes before you eat it, so the flavours have time to develop, but the herbs don't have time to lose the vibrant colours that make this sauce so appealing to eat.
It's absolutely vital to the cooking of the steak that it is room temperature when it hits the pan. Take it out of the fridge an hour before you're ready to start cooking - otherwise you'll end up with the outside overcooked and the middle raw.
Also - don't cook your rump steak blue or rare. It's a cut that needs to be cooked properly, so that the fat renders and the connective tissue breaks down. You're aiming for medium rare - medium here.
Recipe (serves 2):
Thick cut rump steaks (around 1 inch thick)
A splash of veg oil
20 g butter
Sea salt and crushed black pepper
Jersey Royal potatoes - 4 or 5 per person
1 clove garlic grated (or equivalent garlic paste)
Generous pinch sea salt
20ml good olive oil
For the chimichurri:
A large handful flat leaf parsely
A large handful of mint leaves
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
2 fresh red chillis
100ml good olive oil
1 clove garlic grated (or equivalent garlic paste)
1 lime
Generous pinch sea salt
Method:
For the potatoes:
1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees
2. Wash the Jersey Royals, and then using a sharp knife, make cuts about 3/4 of the way through all the way along the length of each potato. keep the cuts as close together as you can - you want at least 15 or even 20 cuts along each one.
3. Carefully, so they don't break apart, toss the potatoes in the olive oil, crushed garlic and salt, lay them out on a tray so the cuts are all facing upwards, and cook in the oven for around 25 minutes (check after 20).
For the chimichurri:
4. Finely chop the fresh herbs with a sharp knife. Be careful that you chop them as fine as possible without overworking them - if you start to crush instead of cut them they will go dark and lose their vibrancy.
5. De-seed and finely chop the chillis.
6. in a bowl combine the cut fresh herbs and chillis, the dried oregano and the garlic paste. grate in the zest of the lime, season with the salt and then pour in the oil and mix well together then leave to stand.
Just before you serve the sauce, squeeze in the juice of half the lime - if you do it earlier the acid will cause the herbs to lose their colour and go dark.
For the steaks:
7. Put your frying pan or griddle pan over a very high heat and allow it a few minutes to come up to temperature.
8. Brush the steaks with the oil, and season on both sides with salt and pepper.
9. Put the steaks into the pan and let them cook for 2 minutes. Do NOT touch them, press them, or move them around. Leave them and let them cook - this will allow a crust of caramelisation to from on the meat.
10. Flip the steaks over and add the butter to the pan. As the steaks cook for 2 minutes on the second side, you can use a spoon to baste the steaks with the melted butter (if you're really feeling fancy you can add rosemary or thyme and a crushed garlic clove to the butter to infuse in extra flavour at this step).
11. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow them to rest somewhere warm (but not hot). This step is essential - it allows the meat to finish cooking all the way through, and prevents the juices from running out when it is sliced. Rest them for at least 5 minutes.
To serve - slice the steaks, plate with the potatoes and spoon the chimichurri over everything!