Sizzling Beef marinade

 We really do enjoy a BBQ at our house and we BBQ all year round, we have even been know to BBQ in the winter in pouring rain underneath umbrellas, you just cant beat that smoke and fire flavour on good quality meat.

Talking of meat I am very lucky to have a good relationship with my butcher, totally fed up with being served with what ever the supermarkets want to sell me I made a big effort to get to know my local butcher and it really has paid off.  I have a real enthusiasm for learning from him different cuts of meat that are on offer that are not available from the super market and save me money and are better quality cuts.  The above piece is called a rose of beef it is the silverside or backend of the cow and is the likely cut that is used in salt beef.  It has a great wide grain perfect for taking up that marinade, lean enough for really fast searing over hot coal 2-3 mins each side depending on how thick your piece, make sure your rest your meat as well before cutting and serving.  This meat cost £10 per kilo where as a piece of rump steak the same weight would cost £16 per kilo.

So if your out BBQing this summer and looking for a marinade maybe give this a try instead of just having a plain BBQed steak. 

ingredients

this is for a 500g of beef steak

2 tbsp. coriander
1 tbsp. cumin
1/2 tbsp. black pepper corns

toast all of the above in a frying pan and then grind up

place the spices into a mini food processor and
add 5-6 garlic cloves
1/2 a red onion chopped
1-2 red hot pepper depending on how spicy you like it
1/2 tbsp. palm sugar
1 generous bunch of fresh coriander
Grated rind of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
2-3 tbsp. of kecap manis I really love this sauce as it is very flavoursome but the regular supermarkets do not stock this however I have found it in Waitrose.
a sprinkle of salt
wiz all the above together if you need a little more movement in the marinade add a little more vinegar.


I tend to make this marinade 2 days before I want to use it typically on a Thursday and I place the whole piece of beef in a zip lock bag and pour over the marinade and just leave it in the fridge until we are ready to use it.

Crops are growing


I still pinch myself everyday at our new life and at the end of this month we would have been living this life for 1 year.  living in the middle of farming country you get to see every small detail of the season change and how glorious it is, all these pictures are taken on the road from our house to school and how could you not love to do the school run being greeted this.
 This field of barley is so beautiful that Sophie and I stopped the car for half an hour and just sat and listened to the wind rustling across the field and we actually saw waves form as the wind blew across the barley and the birds we singing it was a slice of heaven.

 The colours are totally amazing greens and gold's set off by brilliant blue skies and soft white clouds with the odd pop of colour from wild forna.





 Even the rivers are like glass deep cool and clear enough to see fish as dragonflies dance above them.

Sometimes I wonder if I am walking are a series of beautiful artworks, our countryside really is a wonderful place.