Seared Bavette with Red Wine Shallots
Grass-fed bavette seared hard in beef dripping, basted with butter and thyme, and sliced over glossy red wine shallots with a sharp watercress salad. Supper in thirty minutes.
Bavette is the cut butchers keep for themselves, and on a dark October evening it is the best answer to a hungry table and very little time. It sears in minutes, slices into long, ruddy ribbons, and has a mineral, almost gamey depth that a lot of pricier steaks cannot match. Here it meets a pan of shallots slow-cooked in red wine and butter until they turn sticky and almost jammy, with a bite of mustard and sherry vinegar to keep everything bright. It is a proper autumn supper on the table in half an hour, and it asks for one good pan and a bit of nerve with the heat.
Bavette, sometimes sold as flank or skirt's tidier cousin, comes from the flap of the animal, the thin muscle that sits low on the belly beneath the sirloin. It is a working muscle, so it carries a coarse, open grain, a loose, almost ropey texture and an intense beefy flavour. That grain is the whole story: cook it quickly, keep it pink, and slice it thinly across the fibres, and it eats tender and juicy. Cook it slowly or slice it with the grain and it turns chewy.
When you buy, look for a deep, dark red colour with fine threads of fat running through the grain and a thin silvery membrane on one side. Good bavette has a slight sheen, a springy feel and a clean, sweet smell. Avoid pieces that look pale, wet or grey at the edges, and pieces that are very thick at one end and tapered at the other, because they will cook unevenly. A piece about 3 to 4cm thick at its fattest is ideal for the pan. Ask your butcher to trim any heavy sinew, but leave the fine membrane, which crisps up beautifully.
Our bavette is grass-fed British beef. The slow, pasture-led growth gives a mineral, faintly sweet flavour and a clean, firm fat, and because the cut has so much flavour in the muscle itself it takes seasoning, butter and red wine without getting lost. Take it out of the fridge 30 to 40 minutes before cooking so it sears rather than steams.
- 1kg Grass Fed Bavette Steak, in 2 pieces of about 500g
- 2 tbsp beef dripping or ghee
- 2 tsp flaky sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 40g salted butter
- 4 sprigs of thyme
- 3 garlic cloves, lightly bruised
- 500g banana shallots, peeled and halved lengthways
- 30g butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- 250ml good red wine, such as a Côtes du Rhône
- 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 150ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- Pinch of flaky sea salt
- 100g watercress
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp sherry vinegar
- Pinch of salt
- Good crusty bread or buttery mash
- Horseradish cream, if you like
- Salt the steak. Take the bavette out of the fridge 30 to 40 minutes before cooking, pat it very dry with kitchen paper and season both sides generously with the salt. Dry meat and early salt give you a deep brown crust and a seasoned interior. Set the oven to 120°C (100°C fan) and put a board and a plate inside to warm.
- Start the shallots. Heat the butter and olive oil in a wide, heavy sauté pan over a medium heat. Add the shallots cut side down with the bay leaves and cook for 6 to 7 minutes, without moving them, until deeply golden underneath. Sprinkle over the sugar and a pinch of salt.
- Add the wine. Pour in the red wine and sherry vinegar and let it bubble for 3 minutes to cook off the raw edge. Add the stock, turn the heat down to low, partially cover and simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, turning the shallots once, until they are soft when pricked with a knife.
- Reduce to a glaze. Take the lid off, turn the heat up and boil the liquid hard for 5 to 6 minutes until it has reduced to a sticky, glossy glaze that coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the wholegrain mustard, taste for seasoning and keep warm on the lowest heat.
- Heat the pan. While the shallots simmer, set a large cast-iron or heavy steel frying pan over a high heat for a full 4 minutes, until it is properly hot and just beginning to smoke. Add the dripping and swirl. Dripping and ghee handle high heat well; butter on its own would burn.
- Sear the bavette. Lay the steaks away from you in the pan and leave them alone. Cook for 2 minutes without moving, until the underside is a deep mahogany, then turn and cook for another 2 minutes. Press down gently with a fish slice to keep the whole surface in contact with the pan.
- Baste with butter. Turn the heat down to medium, add the butter, thyme and garlic, and tilt the pan so the foaming butter pools at one end. Spoon it over the steaks continuously for 1 to 2 minutes. For medium-rare, the centre should read 52°C on a probe thermometer; for medium, 57°C.
- Rest properly. Lift the steaks onto the warmed board, spoon over the butter and leave to rest for 8 to 10 minutes, loosely covered with foil. The temperature will rise by 4 to 5°C. Resting is not optional with bavette: it relaxes the coarse fibres and lets the juices settle.
- Dress the salad. Whisk the olive oil, Dijon, vinegar and salt in a large bowl. Toss in the watercress just before serving so it stays peppery and crisp.
- Slice against the grain. Look at the steak and find the direction the fibres run. They run in long lines along its length. Slice across them, at a slight angle, in strips about 5mm thick. Cutting with the grain is the one error that makes bavette tough.
- Plate up. Spoon the shallots and their glaze onto warm plates, fan the sliced bavette over them, pour the resting juices and thyme butter on top, and serve the watercress alongside.
Bavette has a coarse grain and almost no connective tissue, so it does not need long cooking: it needs fast, fierce heat and a short time. A very hot pan with a thin film of dripping triggers the Maillard reaction on the surface within seconds, creating the crust and the roasted, savoury flavour, while the inside barely climbs above 50°C. Keeping the steak in constant contact with the metal, and not crowding the pan, stops the temperature crashing and the meat steaming grey.
Butter goes in only at the end because milk solids burn above about 150°C. Added once the pan has been turned down, it foams, perfumes the meat with thyme and garlic, and bastes the top surface so the steak cooks gently from both sides. The rest then lets the muscle fibres, which have contracted and squeezed moisture towards the centre, loosen again, so the juices stay in the slices.
The shallots balance the steak. Their sugars caramelise in the pan, and the wine and vinegar bring acidity that cuts through the beef's richness. Reducing the liquid to a glaze concentrates both the sweetness and the savoury flavour, and the mustard adds heat and body without making it heavy.
If you cannot get bavette, a flat iron or a rump steak will work in the same method, though rump is leaner and should be cooked to 52°C and sliced thickly. Minute steaks need only 30 to 45 seconds a side. A whole piece of onglet is the closest cousin to bavette and behaves identically.
For the shallots, small red onions cut into wedges work well, as do baby onions, though they need a few extra minutes of simmering. Swap the red wine for a dark ale or a splash of port and stock for a deeper, sweeter result. Thyme can be replaced by rosemary or sage, and a spoonful of redcurrant jelly stirred into the glaze adds a fruity edge.
For a vegetarian plate, roast thick slices of celeriac in olive oil until golden, spoon the shallots over, and add a few shavings of mature Cheddar.
The shallots can be cooked up to two days ahead; cool them, cover and refrigerate, then reheat gently in a pan with a splash of stock until glossy again. Salt the steaks in the morning and leave them uncovered on a rack in the fridge, which dries the surface and improves the crust. Cooked bavette keeps for 2 days in the fridge, tightly wrapped, and is excellent cold in a sandwich with horseradish and watercress. To reheat, warm slices very briefly in a hot pan with a little butter rather than the oven, or they will overcook. Freeze the shallots in their glaze for up to a month, defrosting overnight in the fridge.
- Slicing with the grain. The grain on bavette is very obvious. Slice parallel to it and every mouthful is stringy. Cut across it, thinly and at an angle.
- Overcooking it. Bavette is at its best medium-rare to medium. Past 60°C it tightens and dries out, and no sauce can fix that.
- Crowding a cool pan. Two steaks in a lukewarm pan will boil in their own juices. Heat the pan for a full 4 minutes, and cook in two batches if yours is small.
Ask us to leave the fine silvery membrane on one side. Lay that side down first and it crisps and chars, adding a savoury, almost crackling edge to every slice.
Wine: a Côtes du Rhône or a Languedoc Syrah, with enough pepper and dark fruit to meet the shallots. Beer: a dark ruby ale or a good English porter. Non-alcoholic: cold black tea with a slice of orange and a little sparkling water.
Crushed new potatoes with parsley and olive oil, buttery mash or a stack of triple-cooked chips all suit the shallots and juices. Add buttered kale or purple sprouting greens, or a dish of roasted carrots with thyme. A small pot of horseradish cream or a spoonful of salsa verde on the side lifts the beef. For pudding, a baked apple with cinnamon and clotted cream keeps things seasonal.
How long do you cook bavette steak?
For a 3 to 4cm thick piece, cook it for about 2 minutes per side in a very hot pan, then baste with butter for 1 to 2 minutes. That gives medium-rare at 52°C. Rest for 8 to 10 minutes before slicing.
Is bavette the same as flank or skirt steak?
They are close relatives but not the same. Bavette comes from the flap on the lower belly, flank sits just behind it and skirt comes from the diaphragm. Bavette is generally the most tender of the three and has a coarse, open grain.
Why is my bavette tough?
Usually because it was overcooked or sliced with the grain. Cook it quickly to 52 to 57°C, rest it, and slice thinly across the fibres at a slight angle.
What is the best fat for searing steak?
Beef dripping or ghee. Both have a high smoke point and add a savoury flavour. Add butter at the end for flavour, once the pan has been turned down.
Can I cook bavette on a barbecue or grill?
Yes. Grill over a hot fire for 2 to 3 minutes a side, rest it for 8 to 10 minutes and slice across the grain. Our BBQ bavette strips are a good option for quick skewers.
Leave a comment