Heaven on a plate: Fillet, Mash and Rocket with Balsamic glaze

My recipe of the year - this really is heaven on a plate; the most sublime combination of flavours and textures. Actually, it's not my recipe, but my humble imitation of an exquisite plate of food served up at Al Fiume, a very good Italian country restaurant set on the banks of the lovely Hennops River, about 45 minutes' drive north of Johannesburg. In the kitchen is the inspired Giancarlo Pironi, formerly of Assaggi and arguably South Africa's best Italian chef.

This is the perfect dinner-party dish. It's easy to make and not at all fiddly, provided you move quickly, keep everything piping-hot and buy the very best matured fillet and and the pepperiest, freshest rocket and sharpest Parmesan. This recipe serves 10, but is easily halved.

I blush at the fact that this dish is vertically stacked on the plate (I detest towers of food, but in this case the piling of rocket upon steak upon mash is entirely justified).

Fillet with Mash, Rocket, Parmesan and a Balsamic Vinegar Glaze

2 whole fillet steaks
2 T (30 ml) Dijon mustard
2 T (30 ml) olive oil
3 T (45 ml) good soy sauce (Kikkoman)
salt and milled black pepper

oil and butter for frying

10 large floury potatoes, peeled and quartered
milk and butter

fresh rocket (about 3 'pillow packs', or enough to fill a medium salad bowl)
a wedge of cold Parmesan or Grana Padano
freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
a glug of olive oil

200 ml balsamic vinegar

An hour or two before you're going to cook them, trim and prepare the fillets (click here for details). Place the fillets in a ceramic dish and, using your hands, smear with the mustard and olive oil. Pour the soy sauce over the meat, cover with clingfilm and set aside (out of the fridge, so they can come up to room temperature).

Preheat the oven to 190°C and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat.

Put the potatoes into a pan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook until quite tender. Drain in a colander, allow to dry out for 5 minutes, and then put them back in the pan. Place the pan back on the heat, add a splash of milk and a large knob of butter, and mash until fluffy and very smooth. Season with salt and pepper, cover and keep hot.

In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil and butter until very hot - just short of smoking. Remove the fillets from the ceramic dish, shake off the liquid, season well with salt and pepper and place into the hot fat. Quickly brown the fillets on all sides until nicely caramelised (this should take about 6 -7 minutes). Put the fillets on the heated baking sheet and place them in the oven for 7-12 minutes, or until done (they should be a nice rosy pink inside - cut a slit in the thickest part of the fillet to check for doneness). Leave the frying pan and its juices on the stove. Put 10 plates in the warmer drawer.

While the fillet is baking, tip the rocket leaves into a deep bowl. Using a potato peeler, shave the Parmesan or Grana Padano into large thin flakes and add to the bowl. Now add the lemon juice and olive oil, in equal quantities, season with salt and pepper and toss well to coat.

Turn the heat on under the pan you fried the fillets in. Tip the liquid left in the ceramic marinating dish into the hot pan and stir well to loosen any sediment. Pour in the balsamic vinegar. Allow to bubble over a high heat until reduced by about half, to a slightly syrupy glaze.

To serve: Take the fillets out of the oven, cover and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Carve into 20 1-cm-thick slices. Put a generous mound of hot mashed potato into the centre of each plate and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place 2 slices of fillet on the mash (they should lean casually against the mound). Sprinkle with a few drops of balsamic glaze. Top with a generous handful - an extravagant crowning tuft - of the rocket and Parmesan.

Now, in best cheffy style, take a teaspoon of the balsamic glaze and make a pretentious designer dribble around the edges of the plate.

Serve immediately, to rapturous applause.

Serves 10.

Note: Don't shave the Parmesan in advance - it tends to dry out and get a bit greasy.

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Hot baby potatoes with cold tuna-caper dressing

This recipe is inspired by the sublime Italian dish Vitello Tonnato - thin slices of poached veal coated in a silken sauce of mayonnaise, tuna, capers, lemon juice and olive oil. Not having any thin shavings of baby cow on hand, I tried it with garlicky baby potatoes. Heaven.

I never peel new potatoes, but for this recipe, a peeled spud is essential. You can buy ready-peeled new potatoes at Woolies. (Or you can buy, for a mere R150, a potato-peeling appliance. Post a comment if you want to know more.)

For the potatoes:

1 kg baby potatoes, peeled
30 ml (2 T) butter
1 clove garlic

For the dressing:

1 tin tuna, drained of brine or oil
1-3 anchovy fillets, to taste
juice of two fat lemons
250 ml good mayonnaise (Hellman's, or home-made, but not salad cream)
150 ml olive oil
10 capers
a pinch of salt (but taste it first; the anchovy fillets may be salty enough)
freshly milled black pepper
a little hot water

To garnish:

a scattering of capers

First make the dressing. Put all the ingredients except the hot water in the goblet of a blender and whizz until very smooth and fine. The dressing should have the consistency of thick pouring cream, or a thin custard - it it's too stiff, add a little hot water. Process the dressing until it's silky and absolutely smooth. Pour into a jug or bowl and chill for an hour or two in the fridge.

Cook the potatoes in plenty of briskly boiling, salted water (or microwave in a covered glass bowl) until tender but not falling apart (about 25 minutes). While they are cooking, crush the garlic to a fine paste, mix it with the butter in a small saucepan and heat it gently until the butter begins to bubble. Cook for a minute or two, but don't allow the garlic to brown. (You can also do this in the microwave). Drain the potatoes thoroughly, tip them into the saucepan and toss well to coat. Scatter the capers over the potatoes.

Serve the potatoes piping hot, and pass around a jug of cold dressing.

Serve six as a side dish. Print Friendly

Mince for supper again? Try this quick easy no-fry method

What a great stand-by beef mince is when you're feeding a family. I'm not wild about mince ( isn't it an annoying and gristly word, 'mince'?) and I loathe the way it goes all lumpy and grey and sticks to the pan when you fry it. However - provided that it's lean mince you're using - it's a good healthy high-protein staple, loved by most kids and teens and also by men hankering after mom's spag. bol or meat loaf.

Here's a quick way to cook beef mince that involves no tedious frying. Using this method, you can get dinner on the table within 30 minutes. Purists will be shocked at the idea of not browning mince first but, if you're cooking for kids, what's the point? You might miss out on that extra layer of flavour that the caramelising of a meat's surface produces, but no child (or husband, for that matter) is likely to notice the difference. It might look grey to begin with, but once you've added all the bits and pieces you'll end up with a mince of a nice reddish-brown and a good flavour.

Another plus about mince: the way I got my kids to appreciate fresh salady ingredients was to present them with mince (or stir-fried chicken) with a whole selection of healthy crunchy toppings. This mix-and-match approach has really worked: I've noticed that, as they get older, they take bigger helpings of lettuce and tomato and cucumber and avocado, and smaller helpings of meat and cheese.

You can serve this within half an hour, but the longer and slower you cook it, the better it is.  If you have a slow cooker, make this in the morning and leave it to bubble all day. Alternatively, mix all the ingredients together in the morning, and place in the fridge to marinate until you get home. The mixture will taste the better for it.

This is a versatile recipe, because you can add any of your favourite seasonings and spices to it: anchovies, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, tomato paste,  shavings of black truffle, clippings of dragons' toenails; whatever. This recipe contains the flavourings I use.

Quick, Easy No-Fry Mince
1 kg lean minced beef [ground beef]
2 tins of All Gold tomato-and-onion mix** (or two tins of good canned tomatoes, finely chopped, and with their juice)
1 cup (250 ml) white wine (or red wine, or stock, or water)
salt and freshly milled black pepper
2-3 cloves garlic, finely crushed
a handful of fresh herbs, finely chopped (thyme, oreganum, rosemary, sage)
OR 2 T (30 ml) good dried herbs
4 T (60 ml) tomato sauce [ketchup]
3 T (45 ml) Worcestershire sauce
a squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp (5 ml) powdered cumin
1 tsp (5 ml) powdered coriander
1 tsp (5ml) paprika
salt and milled pepper, to taste

Put all the ingredients into a big saucepan. Using a fork, stir and stab briskly to break the mince up into granules. Set the pan over a medium heat, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and allow to bubble gently for 25-30 minutes, until cooked through. If the mixture seems too dry, add a little water.

Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes, or rice, or spooned over fresh buttered rolls.

Or:

For Beef 'Chilli': Add 1 tsp (5ml) of dried red chilli flakes or cayenne pepper (or more if you aren't feeding kids), another teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander, and a can or two of red kidney beans or white butter beans, drained of their liquid. Cook over a high heat until the liquid in the pan reduces. Serve in hot bowls with the following toppings: grated cheddar, sour cream (or Greek yoghurt whisked with a clove of crushed fresh garlic and a few tablespoons of mayonnaise), shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped fresh green chilli and a handful of chopped fresh coriander. A few slices of freshly baked mielie bread make this meal a real winner.

For beef wraps: Cook the mince well until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Warm a packet of rotis or naan bread, or even pita bread. Serve the mince with the wrapping breads and any or all of following toppings: avocado mashed with a bit of lemon juice, Greek yoghurt, grated cheddar, chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, chopped fresh parsley or coriander or mint, hummous, and so on.

** Tomato-and-onion mix: a useful South African staple consisting of chopped tomatoes and pre-cooked onions in a can. I will not hear a word against this product, which is so useful when you're making a stew or a potjiekos and don't feel like chopping onions.

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Quick family dinner: pork fillet with mustard, tarragon and cream

I'm not a huge fan of pork. I do, admittedly, have a severe bacon deficiency - I cannot do without a few rashers of streaky bacon cooked to a crispy brown crumble every now and then. I also appreciate a nice slice of good pink ham with a lick of sharp gritty mustard - but I can live without hunks of pork covered in crackling. Having said that, pork fillet is very tasty and lean, and it's inexpensive when compared to beef fillet.

My kids don't much like pork either, but I partially won them over by concocting this quick and simple - and not particularly healthy - dish. It's creamy, tangy, tender and tasty, and cooked in a jiffy. It went down so well that I think I might make it once a week.

The tarragon is essential to this dish. It's bloody difficult to grow in your garden, and is only occasionally available in supermarkets, so I suggest you use the excellent dried French Tarragon leaves from the Cape Herb and Spice Company. I found these in my local Spar, and at Pick 'n Pay. If you can't find any sort of tarragon, use a handful of fresh parsley.

Pork Fillet in a Creamy Mustard Tarragon Cream Sauce

1 -2 pork fillets (about 1 kg for four people)
30 ml (2 tablespoons) flour
salt and freshly millled black pepper
15 ml (1 tablespoon) olive oil
5 ml (1 tsp) butter
25o ml (1 cup) white wine
125 ml (1/2 cup) water
(1 T) dried tarragon leaves
30 ml (2 T) wholegrain mustard (or a teaspoon each of wholegrain mustard and Dijon mustard)
125 ml cream
juice of half a lemon


Pat the pork fillet quite dry with a paper towel and cut into 1-cm-thick slices. Put the flour onto a dinner plate and season well with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil and butter in a frying pan. While the fat is heating, dip each slice of pork in the seasoned flour, and then shake off any excess flour. Put the pork slices into the hot fat and fry, for about four to five minutes on each side, until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pork slices from the pan and put them on a plate. Cover the plate with a piece of tin foil, or an upturned plate.

Pour the white wine and the water into the frying pan and stir briskly, loosening any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Allow to bubble for 3-5 minutes, or until slightly thickened. Now turn down the heat and stir in the tarragon leaves, the mustard and the cream, and give the sauce a thorough whisk. When the sauce is slightly thickened and smooth, tip the pork pieces and their juices back into the pan. Squeeze over the lemon juice and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down to virtually nothing and let the pan bubble for another 5 minutes, or until the pork fillet is cooked through and well coated with its mustardy sauce.

Serve hot with - hmm, let me think - boiled new potatoes, some tender-crisp microwaved broccoli, and a dab of sauce.


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