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Two sauces from 'A Girl and her Pig' by April Bloomfield



I made these two sauces to have with a bone in Rib-eye steak cooked the April Bloomfield way. I cooked indoors on a griddle pan ... big mistake. The kitchen not only had a certain beefy aroma it also took on a blue hue with those little highlights of smoke under all of the downlighters.
In the end it got so bad I decided to cut the time down on the grill and finish it off in the oven. However I have left the recipe as it is in April's book. I won't do it again until its barbecue weather.
Having said that Martha, Lisa and I polished off every last morsel ... including the rocket salad and McCain rustic style oven chips (yes I know what you're thinking ... frozen chips! well if its good enough for most restaurants I guess its good enough for a Saturday night in East Molesey)
The verdict on the sauces was 2-1 in favour of the chimichurri with both Martha and Lisa voting in favour of the flavours of Argentina rather than those of Spain..... obviously the hand of God incident would have prevented me from doing so even if I had agreed

Method for the steak
To cook the steak and sweet corn, generously season the steaks all over with salt. Let them rest for 10 minutes at room temperature and preheat a grill or grill pan over a medium heat.
Put the steaks on the grill or pan and cook, uncovered, until the bottom has a lovely dark brown crust, about 15 minutes – rotate the steaks after about 7 minutes to get nice cross-hatched grill marks. Use tongs to gently flip the steaks and cook the second side the same way. Rest for about 8 minutes.
To assemble the dish, use a sharp knife to cut the steaks across the grain into 1cm-thick slices. Place a few slices of steak on each plate or serve on a wooden board.

Romesco 
Makes two large jam jars, or about 450g. It keeps well in the fridge.
Ingredients
·       About 450g medium tomatoes, blanced, peeled and cored
·       2 medium red peppers
·       1 small yellow pepper
·       1 small fresh red or green chilli or a poblano pepper, ie a mild green mexican chilli
·       a small red onion cut into 8 wedges
·       7 medium garlic cloves, peeled
·       75g unsalted skinless almonds
·       25g fine breadcrumbs
·       5 tabs extra virgin olive oil
·       3 tabs sherry vinegar, to taste
·       1 1/2 tsp hot pimento (Spanish smoked paprika)
·       3 tbs Maldon salt

Method
Char the peppers all over on an open flame on the hob, or on grill pan, till they are blistered all over. Then put into a plastic bag to steam. Then peel them, remove ribs and seeds and chop flesh into pieces.
Heat the grill pan over a medium heat till it just begins to smoke.
Gently cook onions, chilli/ pepper, garlic and tomatoes until lightly charred.
Toast the almonds in a small dry pan till pale brown, then put them in the food processor and pulse till they are a mixture of fine and chunky bits.
Transfer charred vegetables to a big bowl and roughly chop, then put into food processor and blend until the mixture is fairly smooth but with plenty of small chunks here and there.
In a bowl, mix processed vegetables, almonds and breadcrumbs. Stir in olive oil, vinegar, pimenton and salt. Taste and add more salt and/or vinegar if it needs it.
Chimichurri 

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients


1⁄3 cup tightly packed very finely chopped shallots 
(about 2 medium shallots)
1/2 teaspoon very finely chopped garlic (about 1 medium clove)
2⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil
A big handful of small, delicate flat-leaf parsley sprigs
A big handful of mint leaves
1 teaspoon seeded and finely chopped habanero chili
A generous pinch of Maldon or another flaky sea salt
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or to taste


Method

Toss the herbs together on a cutting board (this will keep your mint from going brown on you) and chop them very fine. Add the herbs and habanero to the bowl and stir the mixture really well. Add the salt, then let the sauce sit for a few minutes or up to 2 hours while the herbs get to know each other. Right before you are ready to serve it, stir in the lemon juice. Taste the chimichurri, season it again with salt and/or lemon juice if you need to, and serve.






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