Excellent Scottish Beef

      I am celebrating Scottish produce and classic Scottish ingredients. Raspberries were first in the spotlight as I was intent on getting some sweet things on this blog, and also because they are so quintessentially Scottish. One of the other things that first sprung to mind when I tried thinking of ingredients was beef. Aberdeen Angus beef is widely regarded as the finest in the world and it is native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland. A nicely cooked steak from a well aged tender piece of Scottish beef is truly a thing of joy; definitely something worth celebrating! 

      Since it is summer, even though typically it is actually cold and raining outside, I decided not to do steak but a salad. This one is warm and savoury, with delicious rare nuggets of seared beef being the focal point. Another component of this mouth watering concoction is blue cheese; Dunsyre Blue, another example of excellent Scottish produce, is from Lanarkshire, a county renowned for it's cheeses. You know already of my fondness for blue cheese, and because it's well-known as an accompaniment to beef, it seemed an obvious choice here. 

      The nuggets of meat will be briefly cooked in a very hot pan, browning the outside creating intense flavour whilst leaving the middle soft and rare. The beef for this recipe must be well selected. In order for meat to be flavoursome and tender the animal needs to be hung after slaughter before it is cooked. For beef, this should be around 1 month. Beef sold in supermarkets is rarely hung for this long as it is expensive to do so; between 4-10 days is normal in this instance. What actually happens in the meat when it's hanging is that the muscle enzymes act upon fat and protein molecules, breaking them down into their component parts and releasing flavourful amino and fatty acids respectively. These enzymes also attack filaments between the muscle fibres, reducing toughness. So, buy your beef from a good quality butcher and not a supermarket, demanding that the meat has been hung for at least 21 days. 

      Which cut to use? Fillet is coveted for being extremely tender and succulent, which is exactly what I am looking for here, so that is what I shall use. Ask for fillet trim or the tail end as it will be cheaper. To complete the dish I have used baby spinach and tomatoes, giving the dish a striking colour contrast, with croutons to add texture variation. The tomatoes also bring a vital acidity in flavour that cuts beautifully through the rich meat and blue cheese.

Seared Beef Salad with Spinach, Tomatoes and Dunsyre (Serves 1)

      To make the croutons: heat the oven to 250C. Put some thick-sliced white bread in the freezer for 10 minutes, then use a bread knife to cut into perfect cubes. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven for 5-10 minutes until golden, then set aside. 

      Take 100g of well-hung Aberdeen Angus beef fillet, trim off all sinew and cut into approximately 1 inch pieces. Cover with cling film and leave for 20-30 minutes to come to room temperature. Have all your ingredients at the ready, as cooking the meat will take only a matter of seconds. Take a generous handful of baby spinach, washed and stalks removed, and place in a bowl. Halve 3-4 cherry tomatoes and crumble about 20g of Dunsyre Blue.

      Place a frying pan over a high flame and leave until smoking hot. Pour 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (not olive oil as it will burn) in followed by the diced beef. Season generously with salt and stir until the meat is almost uniformly browned, about 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and toss until the meat is all browned. Put the spinach from the bowl into the pan and toss once, then quickly throw everything along with the juices from the pan back into the bowl, followed by the blue cheese. Stir until everything is mixed and the spinach barely wilted, and serve. Garnish with the croutons.