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Beefsteak Fiorentina . Meat, Fred and Barney style

I wrote this just after we had set up krow.

I am heading off to Italy for the first meetings with our new client FIAT. As soon as I return Joe and I are heading up to Vermont for our Father/Son revision bonding session. I can’t believe that it’s two years ago that I went up there with Gus.
We are all at home for Saturday night dinner and I decide to do Beef steak Fiorentina, this basically involves cooking a Flintstone size t-bone steak, very rare and then carving it off the bone and serving it in slices.
This dish only works if you can eat your meat really rare. Up until now Gus has really always wanted his meat well done but he decided that tonight would be the night he would try it rare. Good lad.
A T-bone, for those of you who don’t know, has the sirloin on one side of the T and fillet on the other. To get the quality of meat you need and to get it cut the way you want for this recipe, you really do need a decent butcher, as you will know by now Peter Dale of Hampton Court will always deliver.
You want the steak about four to six cm thick, or about two to two and a half inches in old money. Don’t be alarmed when you see it. It really does look like something Fred and Barney would eat, but don’t be tempted to get it thinner.
It will also cost a few bob but I promise you that it’s worth it.
Ideally this is cooked outdoors on a barbecue. If you do decide to do it inside you need a griddle and the extractor fan on at full blast, even then the room will probably end up with those tell-tale wisps of blue smoke sitting under the lights. Under no circumstances be tempted to cook this in the grill that sits inside the oven, it won’t work.
On this occasion we were griddling, which means that, first of all you need to heat the griddle pan until it is absolutely smoking hot. I leave it with the gas full on for about ten minutes before even thinking of putting the meat on. If you are using the barbecue don’t be tempted to start until the flames have died down and the ash is looking white (this applies to almost all barbecue recipes. If you put the food on too early you just end up with burnt meat.. not good)
This steak will take no longer than 15 minutes to cook. First season the meat generously with salt and pepper. Once you put it on you need to turn it fairly regularly to stop it from burning too much, although it will char a bit.
After the time is up set the steak on a chopping board AND DON’T TOUCH IT FOR AT LEAST 5 MINUTES.
We normally just have it with a rocket salad dressed with a bit of olive oil and salt and jacket potatoes. So make sure these are ready. Get a nice serving dish out and drizzle it artfully with a little of your best extra virgin olive oil. This is when one of those little metal olive oil drizzling tins comes in really handy; they make sure that you don’t slosh a ton of the oil on the plate.
Now carve the whole steak off of each side of the bone. Once you have done this slice each steak into thick-ish slices, each piece of the sirloin should have a little bit of fat attached, and place them nicely on the plate
Serve.
We had a great dinner, Gus was converted to rare meat and we had a good old chat about Italy, Vermont, the children’s great school reports, Joe’s singing career and the fact that everybody is growing up fast.
Earlier in the week I had reached the ripe old age of forty-eight. It made me reflect on the fact that time passes very quickly whether you’re having fun or not … so it’s good that we’re all having fun.

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