Sirloin of Jonnie

There's nothing much easier, more satisfying, and a real treat all at the same time, than a steak supper.

When you've got grass fed and 28 day dry aged meat to work with it's a whole lot better. When that meat comes from a source you know, this is a no brainer. Bravo Jonnie, this is the business.

Steak Supper

Serves 2

There’s a lot to be said for a great char-grilled steak – try your hand at making this deliciously meaty steak supper.

2 x 200g beef steaks, a boneless slice from the rump or top round or the sirloin as thick as your thumb

Olive oil
for the béarnaise sauce

1 small shallot
3 tblsp white wine, or tarragon vinegar
6 whole black peppercorns
3-4 stems tarragon, and their leaves
2 egg yolks
Dijon mustard
125g butter, soft, almost melted

Rub your steak all over with olive oil, not too much; just enough to give it a good gloss, then grind a little black pepper over both sides. I put salt on later. Get the grill pan hot, then slap on the steak and press it down onto the ridges with a metal spatula. Let it cook for two full minutes. Do not move it.

Now turn it over (long metal tongs are useful here), press it down again (this is when I usually add the salt), and let it cook for a further two minutes. The best way to tell if your steak is done is to press it with your finger.

Timing is a hopelessly inaccurate measure because so much depends on how your meat has been hung and butchered. The best—by which I mean the juiciest—results will come from a steak where your finger has left a slight indentation. Until you get to know the “feel” of your steaks you may have to make a small cut into them, but you will lose juice this way. If you want a well-done steak, with no blood in it, then I can’t help you. Well, I could but I won’t.

Incidentally, I sometimes pour a little wine onto the grill pan after removing the steak and let it bubble, then pour the meagre, intensely beefy juices over my steak. Serve with fries or accompanied with béarnaise sauce.

For the sauce, peel and finely chop the shallot, and put it in a small saucepan with the vinegar, peppercorns, and the tarragon leaves and stems. Bring to a boil and watch it while it reduces to a tablespoon or so. Put the egg yolks and a little mustard into a glass bowl (not a steel one, they get too hot) and place it over a pan of very gently simmering water.

The bowl should sit snugly in the top of the pan. Whisk the reduced vinegar into the egg yolks, holding the debris back in the pan, then slowly add the butter, a soft cube at a time, whisking almost constantly until it is thick and velvety. You can turn the heat off halfway through; the sauce must not get too hot. It may need a little salt. It will keep warm, with the occasional whisk, while you pan-grill your steak and fry your frites—which, by the way, I tend to buy very thin and frozen, and cook in deep peanut oil.

carpaccio and happiness, at home, where it should be

This is at its very best served really informally at home with the right person, with homemade mayonnaise - which is a traditional carpaccio accompaniment, and properly delicious with chips too. 

The quality of your meat is everything. It needs to come from an animal that has been fed correctly and well hung to ensure it is tender. I prefer the flavour and texture of a pure Angus breed, but there are plenty other good breeds too.

It is pretty much all about the setting and the company. If the food is a bit more than half decent, the full package has pretty much been achieved. That's where something like this comes in. Buy a great piece of meat, do precious little to it, savour the occasion - perfection achieved.

Beef carpaccio/Parmesan/rocket/radishes

Serves just the 2, 4 at a push

500g trimmed fillet of beef
freshly ground black pepper and good quality salt
40g fresh rocket

80g shaved Parmesan

60g fresh very cold red radishes, shaved

40ml extra virgin olive oil

20ml lemon juice

Season the beef well with the pepper and roll up firmly in a large piece of cling film or foil. Roll the film back and forth to make the meat even and nicely rounded. Chill for 30 minutes.

With a very sharp knife, slice the meat as thinly as possible and arrange on a serving platter. Garnish with the rocket, drizzle with the oil and a splash of lemon juice and finally the radishes and Parmesan, and a sprinkle of salt.

Homemade mayonnaise

I more often than not add water or sometimes crème fraîche to my mayonnaise, both to whiten it and to make it lighter on the palate, so that it doesn't overpower the beef.

2 free range egg yolks
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp English or Dijon mustard
150ml groundnut oil
150ml olive oil
2 tblsp cold water

Place the egg yolks, vinegar and mustard in a bowl and whisk together with a balloon whisk. Gradually incorporate the oil, whisking continuously until you have a thick emulsion. Add the water and season. Transfer to a clean jar. The mayonnaise will keep for five days in the fridge.

top rumps

The perfect steak

 

The small matter of cooking the perfect steak

 

This is something that sits conveniently alongside being able to dig a good hole in the ground, fixing a proper martini and making a decent fire

 

We’ve kind of got 5 categories to look after here; The meat, the preparation, cooking with fire, allowing some rest time and serving it up.

 

Easier said than done, but as basics go, finding you a great bit of meat is the only way to begin this journey. Whichever cut you have a fancy for, and I’m a top rump kind of person make sure you look for a really nice marbling of fat throughout the meat.

 

The fat really is all important to enjoying a good steak. The flavour, basting and juice all comes from the fat. Something that’s ideally been hung for at least a couple of weeks is a bonus too, and if this steak thing is a once every now and again treat, then the time taken here is well worth it. Dark red meat and yellowing fat is the guide here and anything close to that will help with the end results no end.

 

I was always taught not to season too early, and more and more recently I hear of the desire to season after cooking is the way to go. I like to season it, and season it well and early. Massage your meat with good olive oil and then season with plenty of flaky salt and very coarsely ground black pepper.

 

Get a good heavy frying pan really hot and sear any fatty edge first until a bit of a crust has formed. Now that the pan is hot, but not so hot the red meat will burn rather than sear, get the steak into the hot oil and give it a good seeing to. Anything a couple of centimetres thick can be left for two to three minutes before needing a turn, and only turn at this point. Fiddling about at this stage will only drop the pan temperature and lead to excessive juices making their way out and a boiled steak which isn’t cool.

 

Another three minutes or so on the B side and good overall golden brown caramelisation and the pan work is complete.

 

The most important thing, and almost always overlooked, is the resting period. When the steak looks ready, smells ready and you think its ready; you’re almost always ten minutes ahead of yourself.

 

Leave your meat in a warm place for that nail biting 10 minute stretch and allow all that insane heat which has tightened up all the fibres in the steak settle down and relax. This time spent also allows the juices to start eeking out, the meat to continue cooking ever so gently and the evenness of cooking ripple all the way through the meat. If fancy is needed, dress it up a little. If not, the least you deserve are a few chips.

 

Top rumps

 

Serves 2

 

2 x 200g top rump steaks

Olive oil

 

for the house made mustard

Makes about 230g

 

90g mustard seeds

110g mustard powder

45ml vinegar (cider, white wine or sherry)

100ml white wine

2 tsp salt

 

Grind the whole mustard seeds for a few seconds in a spice or coffee grinder, or by hand with a mortar and pestle. You want them mostly whole because you are using mustard powder, too.

 

Pour the semi-ground seeds into a bowl and add the salt and mustard powder. If using, add one of the optional ingredients, too. Pour in the vinegar and wine, then stir well. When everything is incorporated, pour into a glass jar and store in the fridge. Wait at least 12 hours before using. Mustard made this way will last several months in the fridge.

 

Rub your steak all over with olive oil, not too much; just enough to give it a good gloss, then the salt and grind a little black pepper over both sides. Get the grill pan hot, then slap on the steak and press it down onto the ridges with a metal spatula. Let it cook for two to three full minutes. Do not move it.

 

Now turn it over (long metal tongs are useful here), press it down again, and let it cook for a further two to three minutes. The best way to tell if your steak is done is to press it with your finger.

 

Timing is a hopelessly inaccurate measure because so much depends on how your meat has been hung and butchered. The best—by which I mean the juiciest—results will come from a steak where your finger has left a slight indentation. Until you get to know the “feel” of your steaks you may have to make a small cut into them, but you will lose juice this way. If you want a well-done steak, with no blood in it, then I can’t help you. Well, I could but I won’t.

 

Incidentally, I sometimes pour a little wine onto the grill pan after removing the steak and let it bubble, then pour the meagre, intensely beefy juices over my steak. Serve with chips, creamed spinach, onion rings and the mustard

horseradish vodka, borscht and rabbit dumplings

There aren't all that many dishes at -10 c that cut the mustard, but horseradish vodka, borscht and rabbit dumplings seem to be doing the just just fine here in Kyiv. What a splendid place, even in the dead of winter, where the warmth of the people totally overcompensate for the lacking in the city's temperature. Where else are you welcomed with a glass of 40% proof horseradish to take the chill off I ask? Follow that up with a smoked plum beer and I'd eat a dumpling filled with anything whatsoever. Interestingly enough, these dumplings are so outright delicious, they're served only with some sour cream. No need for chilli, vinegar or soy here - they simply don't need any more flavour - properly rabbity good.

On the soup thing, this is where the source of internal warmth seriously lies. There are way too many variations of this burgundy coloured soup to even start dissecting, all of which reflect the Eastern European heritage of many Romany people. This one is, I hope, is in the Ukrainian style befitting the incredible hospitality of these brilliant people.

Borscht

 

Serves 6

 

1.2 litres vegetable or chicken stock
2 tblsp red wine vinegar
225g raw beetroot, peeled and grated
500g potatoes, peeled and diced
600g red cabbage, shredded
2 large tomatoes
1 bay leaf
2 onions, grated
4 tblsp soured cream
12 chives

 

Put the stock and vinegar in a large pan and bring to the boil. Add the beetroot and potatoes. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft. Add the cabbage and whole tomatoes.

 

Cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft, then remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon, purée them in a liquidiser or push through a sieve, and return to the soup.

 

Add the bay leaf and season to taste. Stir in the onions and cook for 20 minutes until the onions are soft. Garnish with a blob of soured cream and a few chives and serve.

 

 

borek, manti and some stuffed vine leaves

Istanbul is brilliant, by the way.

 

I can't get enough of the energy and sheer enthusiasm the city radiates so effortlessly. It is where I eat like a King and sleep like an insomniac while generally just be with truly great people. 

 

Now, I am a bit of a dumpling fan, and the Turkish manti being a delightful version which are also served up in Armenia do resemble my more familiar friends from my part of the world. They are quite closely related to the east Asian mantou, baozi, and mandu and the Nepali momo, and are just as delicious.

 

As far as I can see, in Istanbul manti are typically served topped with a pungent garlic yoghurt which is again splashed with some dried chilli flakes that have been woken up in hot oil. There will always be a few pots on the side with some sumac, extra chilli and maybe some dried minto too for you to play around with.

 

Traditional Manti

 

Serves 4

 

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

about 1/2 teaspoon water

2 onions, chopped finely

250g minced beef

salt and pepper to taste

3 tblsp vegetable oil

1 tblsp red pepper flakes

1 tblsp chopped garlic

250g plain yogurt

 

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the eggs and water, mixing well with your hands. Add more water, if needed, to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside for at least 30 minutes. Shred the onions and place them in a colander or sieve set over a bowl; drain the juice and discard. Combine the onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper; mix the meat well with a spoon until mashed.

 

Divide the dough into two portions and lightly flour a work surface. Keep one piece of dough covered while you roll out the second portion into a rectangle, rolling the dough as thin as you can. Cut the rectangle into 2-inch squares with a knife or pastry wheel.

 

Place about a teaspoon of the meat filling in the center of each square. Seal the dumplings by gathering the edges of the dough and pinching them together at the top to form a bundle. Transfer the finished manti to a floured plate, and sprinkle more flour over the manti to prevent sticking. Repeat with the second piece of dough.

 

Heat the oil and red pepper flakes in a small pan over low heat just until the pepper flakes have started to colour the oil; don't let them burn. Remove from the heat and keep warm. Stir the minced garlic into the yogurt and set aside.

 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook the manti until the filling hot, and the dough is tender, no more than a few minutes. Drain well. Divide the manti among four plates. Spoon the yogurt sauce over the manti and drizzle each serving with the hot pepper oil.

 

afiyet olsun

barbecued corn, and more of that beef

Incredible. Remarkable. Outstanding.

This wonderful North Devon beef just keeps getting better, and for a weekday treat, a fillet steak given some simple seasoning and a hard pan fry is all that's needed. If anyone wants some of this incredible meat, give Siana Yewdall a call on +447817 395924 to place an order for one of her brilliant beef boxes.

With a steak of this quality, a slightly fancier something on the side is always worth the effort when the main part needs no help to be splendid. So enter some spunky barbecued corn.

Barbecued sweetcorn with lime, chilli and parmesan butter

Serves 4

This recipe is a regular barbecue number at home, incredibly simple to prepare, and fun to eat.

4 whole corn cobs, in their husks

100g unsalted butter, softened
100g parmesan cheese, freshly grated
finely grated zest of 2 large limes
1-2 bird's-eye chillies, seeded and finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lime, quartered

Place the corn cobs on a preheated hot grill and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning often.

Peel off the husks when cool enough to handle. While the corn is cooking, combine the butter, parmesan, zest and chilli, and beat until smooth.

Season with salt and pepper and smear each cob with the butter and serve with a wedge of lime, a crispy jacket potato and an outstanding piece of beef fillet.

A proper treat indeed.

some of the best beef I've ever had

North Devon has always been a place in between with me. Somewhere you pass on through on the way to what I used to think was all the South West had to offer in the way of Cornwall, but I'm dead happy to be labelled a convert in more areas that I'd planned for. Truly brilliant people, quite beautiful places and their beef when it is correctly reared and handled is something utterly incredible.

You know when you've stumbled upon something a little bit special, it clicks effortlessly, feels instantly right and just seems to linger for ever. With proper beef, there constantly seems to be a search and demand for the next best thing; creamy fat, rich colouring, consistent marbling, depth of flavour - and on we could go... So when you find it, you need to do something decent with it.

Now, a steak is a wonderous thing, and I may have waxed on and on many times before of my love for just an unfussed and barely cooked slab of meat. I do more often than not need coaxing away from a primal cut, but the honesty of a harder working piece of the beast cooked slowly and lovingly never disappoints, it really is always worth the effort, and I sometimes kick myself for not doing it more often. Anyway, like all things quite brilliant, this beef has a source, and you can find it all from the amazing Yewdall family at West Webbery farm near Bideford. You can get a hold of Jonnie and Siana with their contact details here and ask them about their beef boxes.

An honest to goodness beef stew

Makes enough for 6-8, with enough  left over for a splendid lunch tomorrow

1.2kg shin of beef
A decent bottle of red wine

50g flour and 50g mustard powder, seasoned with salt and pepper

Beef dripping, or oil

4 onions, sliced

500ml beef stock

50ml each of Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce and tomato puree

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs of thyme

8 big flat mushrooms

4 carrots, peeled and cut into chunky slices

4 small turnips, peeled and cut into chunks

Trim the beef of its main sinews and cut into large chunks. steep in the red wine for a few hours, then drain and reserve the wine. Toss the meat with the seasoned flour and mustard powder to coat. Heat a heavy-bottomed casserole on a medium flame and add a knob of dripping or a couple of tablespoons of oil. Brown the meat in batches, adding more fat if necessary – be careful not to overcrowd the pan, or it will boil – then transfer to an overproof pot with a tight fitting lid.

Once all the meat is browned, cook the onions until soft and slightly browned. Add them to the beef and then pour in the wine to deglaze. Add the wine, the stock, the herbs and the sauces. Bring to a simmer, then cover and pop into an oven at 140c for at least three hours.

Add the carrots and turnips, and simmer for about another hour, until the meat is tender enough to cut with a spoon. Leave to cool, overnight if possible, and then bring back to a simmer, adjusting the seasoning and finishing with freshly chopped parsley, mashed potatoes and some beans from the garden - a triumph with a story.

a couple of ways with beef

When in the mood for Meat

Only Meat will do

So, a slab of sirloin, deep, dense, ruby red and well aged, and just a little bit too much to cook off as a steak alone did indeed lend itself to a couple of courses last night, and a generous trimming resulting in thin shavings of the meat was the way to get things started. There's something utterly luxurious about raw food - oysters, sushi and caviar being exemplary versions, and a carpaccio of sorts with terrific quality beef falls easily into this category.


Carpaccio in the traditional manner is a fine thing, although more often than not the true flavour of the meat lost a little in sauces that seem to have gone too far down the mayonnaise route. Much more preferable for me is very very good quality salt, pepper and olive oil - nothing more needed to pronounce the true taste of the beef. Adding a fist of rocket leaves, thinly sliced radishes, some raw asparagus and some Parmesan shavings and true completion has been achieved, but as ever there are no fixed set rules here.


Steak in particular is the one and only food item I think about when I'm in need for a proper treat. The first meal I'd go for if I hadn't really eaten for a few days. It needs precious little more than salt and pepper, particularly in this instance - natural in every sense. This little nugget might cause a bit of debate, but honestly a great steak doesn't always need a starch sitting along side, in fact I'd go so far as to say it pretty much doesn't deserve the unnecessary distraction.


If you can fill your house with the luxurious smell of beef charring on a hot grill then going out for an expensive steak dinner very quickly loses its' charm. One joint, two courses, thank you very much.

sausages and mushrooms

or the full on fry up

Serves 4 very happy people

Everybody seriously must love a properly cooked breakfast. No one in the world cooks breakfast like we do - mushrooms, tomatoes, proper local sausages, fat bacon, black pudding, fried bread and potato, with lots of tea and toast. 

I've recently fallen back in love with something cooked in the morning, and as unhealthy as the whole notion of fried food first thing, it's no different to enjoying a pint or two on the weekend - everything in moderation. Timing is critical here as we greedily have a lot of components to bring together, so put the oven on a low setting to keep the plates and cooked items hot until ready to dish up.
 
3 tblsp vegetable oil, plus 2 tblsp to fry eggs
4 handmade pork or beef sausages
8 rashers of smoked back bacon
4 slices of black or white pudding
75g cooked potato (ideally leftover new potatoes)
2 slices of white bread, plus bread for toast
4 large vine tomatoes
4 large flat or field mushrooms
4 free range eggs
Butter for bread
Home made preserves or marmite
 
Preheat the oven to 125°C/gas mark 1. Place your plates in the oven.

Place a large, heavy frying pan on the stove and heat with 3 tblsp of the oil, until warm. Add the sausages, black pudding and bacon, and cook slowly for 6-8 minutes to release the fat but not brown the meat. Turn up the heat and continue to cook until the bacon begins to crisp and the sausages are brown. Transfer to the warmed plates.

There should be a surplus of fat in the pan, now heat the pan until the fat is letting off a sheen or haze, and add the bread and potato. Cook the bread quickly on one side until golden brown, and then remove and place on a piece of kitchen paper before transferring to the oven. Turn the potato over and cook for 2-3 minutes, then transfer that to the oven as well.

Lower the heat and add the tomatoes, cut-side down, and the mushrooms, stalk up. Season with pepper, then cover. Cook for 5 minutes and keep warm in the pan until required. 

Take a small omelette or frying pan and heat 2 tblsp of oil until hot but not smoking. Break the eggs into a breakfast cup and carefully tip into the pan. The egg, if fresh, should “sit up” and not spread all over the pan. Cook until the white of the egg is completely set and firm, and transfer immediately to a warmed plate. Add all the other components and serve immediately.

Wagyu weekend treat

It's the day of rest, and no better time for a deserved weekend treat this evening. Don't hold back on ordering the roast chicken, or pork even, but save any beef urges for later tonight, I certainly will be. This is utterly Cantonese in its inspiration, fun and fresh. Steam a bit of rice, and some greens, then whack this together in your wok. Perfectly comfortable and of course you don't need to go the whole wagyu hog, but it isn't really a treat if you don't.

Pan-fried diced wagyu beef in teriyaki sauce 

Serves 4

600g wagyu beef (cut into dice)

12 stalks of fresh asparagus (peeled and trimmed) cut into 4cm lengths

2 tblsp teriyaki sauce

½ tsp cornstarch, dissolved in a tblsp water

300ml chicken stock

Heat a splash of vegetable oil in a wok and sauté the asparagus for a few seconds, remove with a wire mesh skimmer and drain well

Heat the wok with water, when boiling blanch the asparagus again for a few seconds (remove excess oil) drain well, clean the wok and pour the chicken stock to cook the asparagus for a further 3 minutes. Remove from wok and place on a plate.

Reheat the wok with another splodge of vegetable oil, just enough to coat the surface, place the diced beef in the wok and fry hard until golden brown all over, remove from wok and place on plate.

Pour teriyaki sauce into the wok, add chicken stock and seasoning when boiling, adjust the fire and stir in the dissolved cornstarch to thicken the sauce then spoon over the beef and asparagus and serve.