Talk about a long title.
Nonetheless, it was the only (reasonable) title that I could think of without
sounding silly (not that is a genuine concern of mine). Again, this dish is one
that represents one of my core beliefs about cooking: versatility. This meat
you can cook and use for salads, serving as steaks, sandwiches or wraps and
it’s super easy to make (you can also cook it in advance and store it for a day
or two), and the vegetables make it justice with a simple saffron yogurt
dressing (oh, yeah, the title could have been longer).
So, the meat, use a 3-4
cm thick piece of beef, that would be nice to be flat and even. Season your
meat with some pepper, toss it in your dried herbs of choice (you can use rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander, tarragon) and pop it in a preheated pan with 2 tbs of olive oil.
The reason for using a less thick piece of meat is because we are gonna turn it
once every minute or so for about 5 minutes, so we kinda make sure that the
heat stays in all the time and it doesn’t dissipate through the meat.
So, on high
heat, meat in, turn it every minute for 5-6 minutes, depending on your desired
taste and meat size and then add a generous amount of Worchester sauce (4-5
tbs). The thing is the sauce will caramelize very fast, and you need to make
sure you coat the meat with it on both sides. After that, take the meat out and
let it rest.
For the veggies, it’s a matter of choice, I went with carrots,
courgette (both diced), onion (sliced in rings), and I also used 3 garlic heads
(I used a sort of baby garlic, not that it was small in size, but it was very
young, without all of layers formed, it has a much sweeter taste with a bit of
a green, grassy take). Mix everything (except the garlic) with some olive oil,
salt and pepper and put them (including the garlic) in an oven, on high heat,
for 20-25 minutes, after which you just have to put the veggies on a plate and
sprinkle some chopped parsley on top.
For the sauce, heat a up a
tiny amount of water (couple of tbs), put in a pinch of saffron and let it
infuse for 3-4 minutes. Then, in a pestle squish and bash with a mortar the
contents of a baked garlic head (you’ll have a sort of a baked garlic puree,
one of the most delicious things ever discovered), then put in the saffron
infusion (condiments included), 1tbs olive oil, 150 grams of yogurt (I used the
greek type, with 10% fat) and mix everything into a beautiful dressing for the
meat.
And, hey, if you don’t feel like sitting at the table for this dish, then
don’t: just grab yourselves a tortilla wrap, put the meat, veggies and sauce in
and take it on the go, either way, it’s delicious.
Enjoy,
Mr. G.
