Ponzu, Pepper and Garlic Bavette

by Melissa Thompson, featured in Fired Up

Published by Carnival

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Introduction

This dish is one that I used to serve at my supper club and pop-up restaurant, Fowl Mouths. I could cook the steaks on a proper grill in the kitchen, and it was one of the best sellers. Ponzu is a Japanese citrus-spiked soy sauce. It’s pretty easy to find in bigger supermarkets, and East Asian supermarkets will almost certainly stock it. It brings an umami flavour that’s lifted with the citrus, while the garlic keeps things fragrant and the pepper spices things up. I also add a drop of mirin, which is a sweet Japanese rice wine. It caramelises fast, but because bavette only needs a quick one-two on the coals, the meat is done before there’s risk of burning.

As featured in

Fired Up

Image of Melissa Thompson's Ponzu, Pepper and Garlic Bavette — Photo by Patricia Niven

Ingredients

Serves: 4

4 tablespoons ponzu
4 cloves garlic (minced)
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon mirin
900 grams bavette/flank steak - cut into 4
1 teaspoon brown sugar

TO SERVE

cooked white rice
mixed salad leaves
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
2 spring onions (thinly sliced)
pickled chillies

Method

Ponzu, Pepper and Garlic Bavette is a guest recipe by Melissa Thompson so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Mix together the ponzu, garlic, black pepper and mirin in a small bowl. Pour it over the bavette in a dish, cover and leave to marinate for up to 1 hour in the fridge.
Remove the steaks from the marinade and scrape off any excess garlic and pepper. Strain the marinade into a saucepan, add the sugar and bring to the boil on the hob, then simmer to reduce by half.
Light the barbecue with the coals set up using the bullseye method (see Additional Information, below). Fully open the bottom vents — the coals want to be roaring hot.
Place the steaks on the grill directly over the coals and cook for 2 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 2 minutes. Keep flipping, basting with the reduced marinade to build a crust, until the internal temperature of the steak reaches 45°C. Once it has, remove it from the grill — you don’t want to overcook bavette as it becomes incredibly tough. Transfer to a plate and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Slice the steak against the grain and serve on rice with salad leaves, garnished with the sesame seeds, spring onions and pickled chillies.

Additional Information

BULLSEYE METHOD:
In this set-up, the coals are positioned in a pile, in the middle of the grate. I use this set-up for direct cooks to get a sizzle going in a pan, before the coals are then pushed to the sides for indirect cooking. This is where coal baskets come into their own, because you can easily pull a basket to one side rather than trying to move lit coals one by one, and risk them breaking and falling through the grate.