Chris Rowley, Chef/Founder, Ballintaggart Farm

Barbeque Bavette (skirt or flank steak), Balnaguard chanterelles and garden leaves with garden herb salsa verde

Serves 4

You will need

  • 800g bavette
  • 250g chanterelles, ideally foraged
  • 200g garden leaves, four large handfuls
  • 60ml Summer Harvest rapeseed oil
  • 50g butter
  • 5 young springs rosemary
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • Isle of Skye Seasalt
  • Black pepper

 

For the salsa verde

  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 3 anchovies, rinsed if packed in salt
  • Leaves from about 30g flat-leaf parsley (about 20g leaves)
  • Leaves from about 30g basil (about 20g leaves)
  • Leaves from about 30g wild mint (about 20g leaves)
  • 75g green pitted olives, thinkkly sliced
  • 2 tbsp salted capers, rinsed and roughly chopped
  • 120-150ml Summer Harvest rapeseed oil

 

What to do

Ask your butcher for bavette (sometimes better known as skirt or flank steak). This is a very fatty cut but full of flavour. Order 200g per person as you will need to trim off some of the most fatty bits. Marinade in Summer Harvest Rapeseed oil, rosemary, three cloves of garlic, thinly sliced and black pepper for at least four hours, up to 24 hours.

Next, make the garden herb salsa verde. Roughly chop herbs and combine with sliced olives, sliced anchovies and capers, pour over vinegar and oil and combine. Taste and add more of the vinegar if you like, plus seasoning if necessary. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Light the barbeque and leave until the charcoal is amber. Pat the meat dry with blue roll, season generously with Isle of Skye sea salt and place directly on the barbeque grill. Bavette lends itself to quick cooking. Three minutes either side. Rest for up to ten minutes, somewhere warm, If you are without access to a barbeque, a hot pan will suffice. Slice the meat thinly across the grain and place in the centre of the serving plate.

Scotland’s woodlands are alive with chanterelles from late July until late August. If you are confident enough to forage for them, you will need around 100g per person or buy from a reputable supplier. Dry clean the mushrooms using a mushroom or pastry brush. Quarter larger mushrooms. Heat a frying pan to medium heat with two cloves of thinly sliced garlic and a knob of butter. Heat butter and garlic until foaming, sautée mushrooms for two to three minutes and season generously. Arrange around steak on serving plate.

Cut some peppery garden leaves from your raised beds (if you have – we love mizuna, rocket and young kale) or buy and add, gently scattered, to the plate. Dress the plate with salsa verde.