Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Picanha, also known as beef rump cap, is traditionally cooked hot and fast, then served rare.

I saw it advertised for sale last week at our local Harris Farm Market for just $12.99/kg. It was a locally raised, grassfed bargain, so I shouldered my old backpack and walked to the nearest store. Of course, I’d forgotten that I can’t seem to enter a Harris Farm and not leave with a full load, so the 2km walk home was a bit tricky…

At this point, may I take a brief moment to rave about Harris Farm Markets? For two seconds in the early 1990s, I worked with Cathy Harris (she was in PR back then) and met her and David on the odd social occasion. They were the nicest people – smart and entrepreneurial, but also kind and very family focused. So I was delighted but not at all surprised to read recently that Harris Farm Markets continues to be a family business, now run by three of their five sons.

As a shopper, I like everything about them (I have no idea what they’re like to work for or with). They offer a large and diverse range, they don’t sell caged eggs in their stores, they’re getting rid of plastic bags altogether, and much of their meat is grassfed and free range. A few years ago (and months before the supermarkets), they started selling imperfect fruit and vegetables at greatly reduced prices, to the benefit of both farmer and consumer. And they have pretty fabulous specials, which they email out every week to subscribers.

Which brings me back to my rump cap. There were a few brands on offer, but I bought this grassfed Angus beef from the Australian Meat Group…

The meat wasn’t marbled, but it did come with a generous “cap” of fat…

As I said at the beginning, the traditional way of cooking picanha is hot and fast, until the fat renders and crisps but the meat is still quite rare. I, on the other hand, had been craving slow cooked beef all week.

I dragged out my trusty Römertopf clay pot and popped it into a sinkful of water to soak for 20 minutes…

This photo was taken when my pot was new. It’s not so clean now (sigh)…

The fat on the cap was scored deeply and the whole piece rubbed generously with salt and pepper, before being nestled (fat side up) into the soaked pot – I had to squish it a bit to fit. With the lid on, the pot went into a cold oven and I turned the heat up to 200C with fan.

After an hour, I took the pot out carefully and sat it on a folded tea towel (the Romy is quite sensitive to thermal shock, so plonking a hot pot onto a cold bench could cause it to crack). I poured boiling water in almost to the fat level, and added a couple of large pinches of salt.

The lid went on and the pot went back into the oven, with the heat reduced to 150C with fan, for a further two hours. By that stage the meat was very tender – we carefully removed it from the pot and wrapped it in foil to rest. The fat was skimmed off and used  to flavour roast potatoes, and Pete turned the stock into a delicious gravy.

Here’s the end result…tender and incredibly flavoursome slow cooked Aussie beef, cut with the grain to keep the slices intact. The 1.75kg piece cost us $22.50 and produced enough food to feed four adults generously or five comfortably…

We served it with homemade caponatina, potatoes roasted in the beef fat, focaccia croutons and Pete’s perfect gravy…

This was sooo good that I raced back to Harris Farm the following day and bought a couple more rump caps for the freezer!