Screw chocolate. A good steak is where it’s at. - A.D. Posey

We don't need a special occasion in this house to have steak night! At one point, I went through a real carnivorous craving stage and we had them at least once a week, lol. We don't have steak quite as often now - but it is always GOOOOD when we do. So, like I said... no special occasion yesterday - we just both felt for some red meat. Normally, (and as per the header post of this blog) the general "go to" steak selection will be a rump or sirloin - anything with a nice fat rind on it. I am a fat loving gal! However, in this instance we opted to change it up a little, so we grabbed ourselves a less than little, matured fillet off the shelves.

As you can see - not exactly a tiny cut of meat... but there is enough left over to have it for dinner again tonight. In most instances, I will cook steak on the griddle - mostly for convenience reasons and also because you can cook it temperature perfect, but yesterday we opted to do it on the weber kettle braai.

I prepare all sorts of steak rubs, but if I am honest my absolute favourite is without question a rosemary and black pepper rub - heavy on the black pepper! I had a fillet steak at some fancy shmancy restaurant many years back and admittedly, at that age and stage of my life I actually wasn't a very big fan of black peppercorn... nonetheless, the steak landed in front of me, completely rolled and covered in black pepper - AND I LOVED EVERY SINGLE BITE! I was forever converted! As the years rolled on and I began cooking and experimenting with foods more - I tested it out one evening with rosemary added to the equation and it was even better!!!!

ROSEMARY & BLACK PEPPER FILLET

The myriad of flavors explode on my tongue, shimmy through my mouth, slap my taste buds and call them filthy bastards, and I love it. - Stacey Jay

Steak has got to be one of the easiest (and quickest) things to cook on the planet - especially when you are a blood gravy, red and rare lover like I am! A couple of minutes is all you need really. Fillet of this size is also quite a fun thing to do if you are having a dinner party in the summertime - reason being, it makes for good socialising and spices an otherwise ordinary evening up!

If you cook the tenderloin rare over the coals, remove it and slice it up into nice thick medallions... then those who like theirs rare can just hang on for a minute or two - and others who prefer it medium or well etc. can take their medallion slices back to the grill and give them an extra few minutes until they are happy. This way you also know everyone will be happy with how their steak was done at the end of the day. Thankfully under this roof, we are all rare lovers - including my son... so it makes for easy prep.

So, the rub... well, it is easy peasy! Get some foil, tear off a sheet large enough to host the piece of meat and pour some olive oil straight onto the foil. Grab some fresh rosemary and chop it up - about a handful is good enough for a piece of meat that size. Then grind a whoooole lot of pepper... like the more the merrier as far as I am concerned! I was however, not toooo heavy handed last night as Jude was having steak too, and it not as much of a pepper lover as we are! Once all the stuff is on the foil, grab the fillet and just roll it and rub it all over, giving it a good massage with the oil, herbs and spices.

To the rosemary, pepper and olive oil - I added seasoned salt and a little grilling spice. For me, that would have been it because personally I like the flavour of the meat to shine through - but Dave came into the kitchen while I was busy prepping and started grumbling something about BBQ basting or whatever... so, I decided to entertain his preference, lol! My son is a big lover of SPUR BBQ Sauce which is from one of our local South African family steak house restaurants... so, the rub became a bit of a rub, basting combo lol!

When you are done with all the rubbing and rolling - wrap it up in the foil and put it one side until you are ready to cook it - the earlier you do this - the better as the meat has more time to absorb all the flavour. You are not going to cook it in the foil - only rest it in there!

This was a 1.2kg tenderloin and to have it RARE, we cooked it for ten minutes in total - but done two minutes per side at a time. It came off the coals in absolute rare perfection!!!

Bon Appétit!

There is only one right way to eat a steak - with greed in your heart and a smile on your face. - Soumeet Lanka

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Until next time...
Much Love from Country Bumpkinland, South Africa xxx
Jaynielea

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