WOOD FIRED COOKING PIT BEEF SIRLOIN

FLAME COOKED SIRLOIN

This is one of the best ways to eat steak.!  The slow wood fired pit charred crust also known as the burnt end is loaded with gorgeous smokey oak pit fire flavour, it is out of this world, left to rest this is one of the best steak dinners ever!

Cooking time 50-60 minutes / Resting time 10 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 8-12)

2-3kg thick end cut whole sirloin

1 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp ground black pepper

Chimmichurri Salsa

1 clove garlic grated

1 bunch parsley chopped

4 tbsp oregano chopped

150ml olive oil

50ml balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix all the ingredients together, this is a brilliant sharp salsa that is perfect with meat and fish.

Serving Ideas

1 kg crushed new potatoes tossed in parsley butter

Large mixed green salad with apple balsamic vinegar dressing

French beans & asparagus in lemon olive oil dressing

Colcanon buttery mashed potato and cabbage

Set Your Meat On Fire

The first time I cooked this I spent a lot of the cooking time thinking OMG I am so just burning the steak, the black crust of the steak looked very burnt, but I stuck to the instructions I had read and really did not think the family was getting any dinner that night!  The surprise to all the family when after the important resting time was up was a gorgeous steak with a burnt end crust full of flavour.  This is now a family favourite.

Cooking Your Pit Beef Sirloin

One and half hours before you want to cook, fire up your pit or BBQ with wood, I like to have two heat sources on the fire pit so once the pit is established and I have white heat I stack up one half of the fire pit more than the other, this is so that I have two cooking heats, flaming hot and heat hot, this is what allows you to keep the burnt end crust just that and not a burnt burnt sirloin.  

Just season your sirloin with the salt and pepper and place on the grill over the pit on the heat hot side first, leave alone for around 5 minutes to seal the steak before turning, once the steak is sealed you can turn as often as the flames make you!...Flames... now as the meats starts to render the fat out this starts to drip down and will cause flame flares, this is ok, if too much flame I will just move the sirloin out of that zone for a bit and then put back, the key to keeping a burnt end perfect is to keep turning the steak every 5 minutes or so, keeping the burnt end crust even.  That's it, I work to a core temperature of 55-60 degrees C for rare towards medium and this takes about 50-60 minutes.  Slice as thin or thick as you like and serve on its own with some chimmichurri salsa or some sides, for me my plate is all about the pit beef and some sea salt!

I have served this up to many friends over the years and I love their reaction to the cooking and serving when experiencing this the very first time, they are quietly watching the sirloin on fire on the pit and I'm not really paying much attention to it, you can see the burnt crust, I secretly snigger to myself how polite and supportive they are as they think dinner is burnt and I know they would eat it without complaint!

The delight on their faces when then tuck in to juicy succulent steak with that fabulous burnt end oak smoked flavour, the table erupts in honest relief and laughter as they all say what they were thinking while the pit beef was burning/cooking!