Difficulty 1/5
Picanha or also found as “rump steak” is a beautiful piece of meat famous in Brazil. I love this cut because it has a piece of fat that makes it really flavourful, and the meat is super soft, as well. The butter, though, is simply stunning. Try it for grilling season or for you pan-fried meats like I did. As it melts, the flavour from the components as well as the butter itself will make any piece of meat an amazing trip. Also, you can, as always, change the ingredients to the ones you like the most. Finally, if you like the look of the coleslaw salad, find the recipe here ;).
Portions: 4
Ingredients:
For the butter:
– 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
– 5g garlic
– 1/4 tsp paprika
– 1/4 tsp black ground pepper
– salt to taste
– 1 tsp apple or cider vinegar
– zest of 1 lemon
For the beef:
– 800g picanha steak
– vegetable oil if needed (I didn’t need any)
– salt and pepper to taste
Procedure:
1. Put your soft, room temperature butter in a bowl and whisk until very smooth. You can do it by hand or in a machine.
2. Chop the garlic extremely small and grate a lemon through a fine grater. I even chopped the zest after just to make sure they are small.
3. Mix everything together.
4. Make a rectangle out of 3 layers of cling film. This will help with cutting later. Put the butter on one end. Then roll it over and press with your hand to make it tight.
5. Close it on either side so no air remains and then roll it on the counter to make it round. Close at each end and freeze for 30min. Then it’s good to cut with a sharp knife, cling film and all. Then put it in the fridge or it will be too cold to melt :). That’s it for the butter!
6. Before pan-frying the picanha, you must thin out the fat layer or it won’t render. I recomend to leave it at 2mm. Then cut the picanha into even portions (or uneven if someone is extra hungry or extra full).
7. Put the meat, fat side down, on the pan on really low heat. This way, the fat will render without cooking the meat just yet. This is why I didn’t need any oil 🙂 Also, you can render the pieces of fat from the thinning down of the fat layer. Here are the pictures of the before and after:
8. Once the fat layer is very thin and it has rendered a nice amount of fat, add salt to the top part and flip it over. For it to become nice and golden, you need to flip it and let it be until ready. Then repeat on all sides so it’s perfectly cooked without losing any juices. Let it cook to your favourite point, I love it medium-rare ;). Let rest at least 5min with a lid on and the serve with a piece of butter on top. ENJOY!
