FOR THE ANCHOVY BUTTER
2 salted anchovy fillets rinsed of excess salt
25 g softened unsalted butter (approx 1oz)
FOR THE SALAD
100 g lamb's lettuce
100 g frisee (curly endive)
1 cooked beetroot, peeled, sliced and cut into fine strips
2 tbs sunflower oil
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1/2 small garlic clove, crushed
Raw Scottish | Kobe Feather Steak
ANCHOVY BUTTER
Mash the anchovy fillets in a mortar with a pestle or in a small bowl with a fork until smooth. Add the butter and beat together until well mixed. Season with a little freshly ground black pepper.
SALAD
Mix together the lamb's lettuce and frisee and place to one side of 4 large plates, then sprinkle over the beetroot. Whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, 1/2 tsp f salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle this dressing over the salad.
Brush the steaks on both sides with a little oil and season lightly with salt and pepper - don't forget that the anchovy butter will be quite salty. Heat a ridged cast-iron griddle over a high heat until smoking hot. Add the steaks (in batches if necessary) and cook for no more than 30 seconds on either side. Put alongside the salad, drop a little of the anchovy butter on top of each slice and serve straight away.
Servings: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 minutes
Ready in: 22 minutes
Steak MirabeauHubby was all too happy to see this steak dish on the menu. Grilled steak with anchovy butter, roasted tomatoes and onion rings? I do believe this is the way to a man's heart and if I didn't have his already, this would have sealed the deal.
I generally don't like really fishy fish but I love anchovies. Stephanie March, wife of Bobby Flay, said that anchovies are the bacon of the seafood world and I have to agree. Who doesn't love bacon?
The original recipe serves six so I pared it down for the two of us.
I had plenty of small tomatoes from my garden so I used some of those. Salt and peppered them, dotted them with butter and roasted them in the toaster oven.
For the compound butter I just mashed anchovies with soft butter and parsley and rechilled in a log form for easy slicing.
The onion rings are soaked in milk, drained and dried and tossed in seasoned flour and deep fried. Easier than batter frying and gives a nice thin, crisp ring like a fritte.
Get your favourite grill master to grill up the steaks and lay the finished product on a bed of watercress, laying strips of anchovies across it. Garnish the plate with the tomatoes and onion rings and lay a disk of anchovy butter on the steak.
For an extra little punch, an anchovy wrapped olive is added, I put mine on the tomatoes. I didn't realize until the photos were done that the olive sank down a bit into the tomato - so it looks a little funny, but still tastes good.
Et voila, impressive meal for fairly painless preparation.
Open up a nice dark red and serve by candlelight.
Whisk Wednesdays is an at home culinary learning community following Le Cordon Bleu at Home and organized by Whisk: a food blog. Check out Whisk for instructions on the dish, the blogroll and to find out how you can play along.
Minute steaks are traditionally sirloin or scotch fillet, but rump also works well here. Don’t buy so-called minute steaks from the supermarket. I have never found them to be anything other than tough, with little in the way of flavour.
To accompany the meat I’ll make a potato salad with boiled baby potatoes, sliced in half while still warm and dressed with white wine vinegar, olive oil and some freshly chopped parsley. I’ll also barbecue some corn on the cob to serve with butter to which some lemon juice and finely chopped French tarragon has been added.
Method
Anchovy Dressing
In a small saucepan heat the oil, add the garlic, anchovies and rosemary, and fry gently until the anchovies have melted. Remove from the heat and cool. Place in a blender with the egg yolk and start adding the oil drop by drop as you would for mayonnaise, drizzling it in once it starts to thicken. When it has become thick add the milk. The dressing should have the consistency of a lightly thickened cream. Add the vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
For the steaks
Remove the fat and silverside from the steaks. Place between layers of plastic wrap and flatten to a thickness of 5mm. Cut each steak into 3 or 4 pieces.
When ready to cook, season with salt and pepper then grill over a high heat for a minute on each side. Place on a warm platter, drizzle the anchovy dressing over and sprinkle with capers and flat-leafed parsley. Serves 6 as part
of a meal.
Ingredients
Anchovy Dressing
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
6 anchovy fillets
½ teaspoon finely chopped rosemary leaves
1 egg yolk
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon milk
½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the steaks
1kg rump steaks (2 large ones)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons capers
¼ cup flat-leafed parsley, coarsely torn