Red Tomato

A rare steak is something of a red rag to a bull, these days; not to mention a bull stock market.

But every now and then, I reckon a decent steak is a good thing.

First buy your steak. I usually eat use a piece of fillet or sirloin weighing around six ounces. In NZ or France, rump steak might be alright but steak of any kind is rarely sufficiently aged or tender enough in UK supermarkets. (There are companies which will deliver their grain-fed, carefully reared beef of course. At a price!)

Leave the steak under cover, out of the refrigerator so that it warms up to room temperature. Do the same with an uncorked bottle of mellow red wine.

Next, oven bake a ‘baking potato’ or two. As they don’t freeze well, don’t even think about doing more potatoes than you need.

You might, however, think of other things that can be cooked in the oven while you dally long enough to bake your potato(s). For instance, you could pop a large red tomato in - with a line sliced around the top third of the skin so it doesn’t split - about three-quarters of the way through cooking.

An apple pie would follow the first course nicely, and takes about the same time to cook as the potato.

Even an Armadillo potato (a washed potato with the skin left on, and carefully sliced ‘across the grain’ from the top down in half-inch wide cuts, to within half an inch of the bottom) will take an hour to cook in a medium oven.

While the potato cooks, prepare some vegetables or a salad. Green beans or skinned broad beans and peas go rather well with steak.

Alternatively, a watercress salad will work splendidly. Moments before your steak cooks (allow a five minute space), dribble a little olive oil and a few drops of basalmic vinegar over the watercress on a serving plate. It won’t wither on a hot plate if you put it there late enough. (A hot plate is a good thing for steak.)

When your potato has nearly cooked - use a steel prong of the kind you thread shish kebab on to see if it pushes easily into the centre of the potato - get moving with the steak.

Take a solid iron pan. Put it on the heat until it begins to smoke a little. Toss in about a dessertspoon of Maldon salt crystals; as they come from the pack.

Heat until spit whistles over it. (Sorry, that’s neither hygienic nor very ladylike but if will give you an idea of the heat level.)

Shake the plan so the crystals are distributed evenly around the pan. Throw in your steak, and cook until the first side has browned. About three minutes, by my reckoning.

Flip the steak and cook a further minute or two until it’s done to your taste, i.e. rare, medium or well done, with six minutes being fairly well done.

Turn the heat off and leave the steak in the pan for another five minutes. This gives the meat time to relax. It will remain hot.

Serve with the potato; cut a cross on the top, and gently pull the potato from the bottom so that the cross on top opens up, and add light creme fraiche, proper butter or a mixture of horseradish sauce and sour cream to the cavity. Horseradish goes well with the steak, too.

Pour a glass of wine and enjoy your simple feast.

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