Curious Cuts: Beef Bavette with a Tomato Salad

With the introduction of Curious Cuts by Harris Farm, sourced from grass-fed Cape Grim beef and supermarkets following suit in the secondary cuts department, it is becoming cheaper to eat good meat. And let me tell you, this paprika and lime beef bavette tastes as good as the premium stuff. Here’s proof. 

When it comes to grass-fed beef, sustainability goes a step further nowadays with producers, grocers and supermarkets jumping on the secondary cuts bandwagon. When I was shooting beef cheeks for the The Wholesome Cook book, a mere 6 months ago, I was only able to pre-order beef cheeks from my local butcher’s and they came frozen. Now I’ve seen grass-fed beef cheeks, fresh, at the supermarket.

It’s a great thing because there is less waste and it promotes the kind of nose-to-tail eating that seems to have skipped a generation or two.

With the introduction of secondary cuts everywhere including the cleverly named Curious Cuts range at Harris Farm, sourced from grass-fed Cape Grim beef, it is becoming cheaper to eat good meat and that’s a good thing for our health, too. You see, grass-fed beef is higher in Omega-3 and lower in the pro-inflammatory Omega-6 (I talk more about this and the all important ratio of the two in the Wholesome Kitchen chapter of The Wholesome Cook book).

Bavette (from French meaning bib) is an extension of the T-bone and Porterhouse steaks, flap meat is officially part of the short loin section. According to SFGate flank steak and skirt steak also would be lovely in this recipe but cooking times may vary – the recommendation, however, remains to cook to medium rare at most.

Being the first day of Spring, it was time to dust off the grill and have a little Spring-eve dinner of grilled Beef Bavette and Heirloom Tomato Salad. To be honest, it’s a great dish to treat your beef-eating dads to this Sunday (don’t forget, it’s Father’s Day). Since I’ve been obsessed with sheep’s milk feta, I added some for good measure and it went beautifully with the smoky paprika and lime beef.

PS While I received ingredients for this dish from my local Harris Farm – Paul their lovely butcher delivered it to my door, I’m there almost everyday and love the selection of grass-fed and organic meats on offer. Not to mention the fruit and veg as well as the fact that the company donates plenty of food and ingredients to OzHarvest. 

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5 from 1 vote

Curious Cuts: Beef Bavette with a Tomato Salad

The following recipe has been adapted from Harris Farm Mexican Bavette recipe. Omit feta if you prefer. If you don't like your meat rare, slice the bavette once seared and cook slices for 10 seconds on each side before serving.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Servings: 4 -6

Ingredients

• 600 g beef bavette steaks approx 2

For the Marinade:

• 1 lime zested and juiced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp smokey paprika
• 2 tbsp rice malt syrup or honey
• ¼ tsp sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

For the Salad:

• 200 g baby heirloom tomatoes chopped roughly
• handful snow pea sprouts
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes optional
• 50 g sheep's milk feta optional
• a few coriander leaves

Instructions

• Combine marinade ingredients in a glass dish. Add meat to marinade and rub all over, cover and allow marinate for at least 30 mins at room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Remove meat from the marinade. Grill steaks on high heat for
• minutes on each side until browned and place in oven for 5 mins for
• medium-rare. Remove from the oven, cover in aluminium foil and
• set aside. If you don't like your meat rare, slice the bavette into 1cm-thick slices once out of the oven and grill slices for 10 seconds on each side before serving.
• Arrange sliced tomatoes and pea sprouts on a platter, drizzle with olive oil and lime juice. Top with slices of the bavette steak and top with chilli flakes and crumbled feta cheese, if using and coriander leaves.

Notes

Gluten-free, Nut-free, Egg-free, Sugar-free | Options: dairy-free, Paleo

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