BEEF!

Servus!

Sometimes, you just need to have a good hunk of beef to make things right.

That's what Anna and I did on Sunday - Picanha on the rotisserie!

Some of you may be asking "What is Picanha?"

According to Uncle Wiki: "...a cut of beef popular in Brazil. In the U.S. it is little known, but referred to as the rump cover, rump cap or coulotte. North American butchers generally divide it into other cuts like the rump, the round and the loin. In some places in the US it is called top sirloin cap."



What you are seeing is 2.5 kilos of prime U.S. sirloin with the fat cap removed. I would have preferred that it was on but the cut came with it already removed. :(

We then proceeded to spear the cuts we made onto the rotisserie spit. You can see, we tried to bend them so that the fatty side would be out towards the fire: since there was no fat cap, we were unsuccessful..




No matter!! I will not accept defeat - lets put the meat on the fire!!!



The meat was allowed to rotate over a hot, indirect fire with the lid closed for about 10-15 minutes until the outside began to brown and caramelize. More on that later...

Since you cannot live on meat alone (not that I wouldn't be willing to give it a try!) we decided to go with a potato salad as our side dish. I really like this variant on the classic - here's the recipe:



A Variant on Papa's Potato Salad

1kg of potatoes - the kind that stay firm while cooking
3 hard-boiled eggs
15 cornichons, diced (You can use kosher dills but it will taste different)
15ml of the juice from the cornichons (more or less...)
500g jar of Mayo (not Miracle Whip or other strange stuff)
10 pieces of crispy bacon
300g can of sweet corn
200g jar of sliced mushrooms
100g sliced jalapenos (Optional)
Salt and pepper

Boil your potatoes until tender. Peel and cut into cubes. Peel your eggs and cut them small. Same with the cornichons (well, don't peel them...) Crumble up our bacon, (you can add more bacon - in fact, I recommend it!) put this all into a large bowl and add all of the remaining ingredients. Mix well and add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill in the fridge until cold.

Back to the meat!

Now, the way that this works is that you let the meat turn for 15 minutes and then you take the spit off the grill and start shaving down the meat into thin strips. The remaining meat should still be pretty underdone and you subsequently put that back on the grill for a bout 10 minutes - wash, rinse, repeat...








Ideally, this is a great summer treat - best suited to sitting on the patio with friends, drinking heavily and eating lots of beef until the sun goes down and everyone has a great time. Unfortunately, the weather is not like that in early February in Germany - we ate inside an had to regularly go outside to cut meat.

Honestly, this a great way to grill beef without worrying too much about doneness and it looks spectacular! I suggest you try it!

Go make some smoke,
Jake