This is a truly magnificent hunk of beef. So hunky, in fact, it could have its own female fan club.
The breed: Dexter.
The cut: Rump.
The age: 60 days (SIXTY!).
The butcher: Turner & George.
The cooking methods: Sous Vide, followed by flash-fried and flamed.
The texture: Soft and creamy with a decent bite: something to really get your teeth into.
The taste: Beef stock cubes meets caramel.
When I first opened this 300g mega-beast, my first thought was: Ill never eat all of that. But then my wife appeared at my shoulder, drooling, and I knew I wouldnt even get the chance to attempt to!
Because this steak is so thick, the cooking challenge was to get the internal temperature nice and hot without drying out the outside. One way to do this wold be to slow roast in a very low temperature (90C) oven for about an hour, before searing in a very hot pan.
The other is to use my trusty Sous Vide water bath. And so, for this recipe, I vacuum-packed the beef, then cooked it in the water bath at 55C for 2 hours.
After that, I oiled the steak, seasoned it with salt, then heated a cast iron frying pan until it was smoking hot.
I then added a knob of butter, followed by the cooked-through steak (still pink inside, as you can see, but also nice and hot) and seared for 30 seconds each side.
For the second flip, I splashed in a glug of brandy and marvelled as the juices exploded into flames.
Then, after resting the steak for 5 mins, I cut it into thick slices and served with a chunky deep-fried onion bhaji and Aged Cheddar-stuffed Portobello mushrooms, before drizzling over the pan juices.
Moooo-tiful!
