Steak Nachos

I could have titled this post, ‘how to begin using up 34 kg of spring onions’. Not 3.4, THIRTY FOUR. Don’t ask. Just don’t. Let’s just say there will be lots of spring onion recipes coming your way very shortly. If you don’t like spring onions, you’re a bit screwed really. You’re also a little bit weird because spring onions are fabulous.

THIRTY FOUR KILOGRAMS.

Anyway these nachos are great. I imagine you could go to the shops and buy some spring onions in order to make them. A distant memory for old muggins here. After you’ve done that, the first step is to get some decent tortilla chips in – no Doritos. Save those for your hangover or whatever late-night toasted cheese and crisp concoctions may surface from the depths of your sick, sick mind – just leave me out of it. Then you want to get a load of tomatoes, garlic, scotch bonnet chillies and peppers and put them in the BBQ for half an hour or so with the lid on, then blend them up. That’s your tomato sauce. Then the spring onions – char them on the BBQ, chop them, mix them with crème fraîche and cheese as per below to make an awesome dip. Save a few onions for garnish. The steak is a steak – sirloin, bavette, whatever you want – grill it to your liking. Rest, then slice and place on top of the tortilla chips, pour over the juices. Add sour cream. Point face-ward. These were so good I’m almost pleased I was forced to come up with the recipe.

***Spring onion usage: – 300g. Only 33.6 kg to go***

Smoky Steak and Spring Onion Nachos Recipe

Tortilla chips (good quality, plain)
Steak (sirloin, bavette, even fillet if you’re into that kind of thing. I wouldn’t use a heavyweight like rib eye for this though)
Sour cream
A few chives, snipped

For the tomato sauce

5 tomatoes
2 scotch bonnet chillies
2 red peppers
2 whole heads of garlic
Couple of sprigs of thyme
Juice 1 lemon

When your BBQ is up to temp and looking ready, whack everything in a tray except the lemon, with a splash of oil, some s and p and leave it in there for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool a little, then remove a bit of the pepper and tomato skin if you can, and also the seeds from the scotch bonnets. Squeeze the half the garlic cloves from their casings and blend it all up. Adjust the seasoning as necessary. You can keep this in the fridge – add a layer of oil on top to lengthen shelf life. I’ve frozen my leftovers.

For the spring onion dip/nacho sauce (whose sauce is it? Nacho sauce! Ha aha haha *eye twitch*)

20 spring onions
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
The remaining head of garlic from the tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Tulum cheese, or feta (crumbled), or other similar white cheese

Coat the spring onions with a little oil, then char the on the BBQ (this is very quick). Chop them up and mix with the other ingredients. Season.

To assemble the nachos

Arrange the chips in a suitable fashion on the plate. Grill the steak (that means get the grill very hot, then season the steak very highly with salt and pepper, then grill it, flipping it regularly to form a nice crust). Rest it, slice it. Put it on the chips. Pour over the juices. Add the other bits and bobs. You know what to do.

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This is the bit where I’m supposed to write about how home made taramasalata is so much better than the artificially coloured stuff you can buy in shops. It is of course, but you’ve heard it before, and anyway I love it so much I’ll eat any version – posh, cheap, white, pink, whatever.

I will say however that there is a sort of ‘mayonnaise moment’ when making tarama for the first time, by which I mean that you will be shocked by how much oil goes into it. You’ll have to get over that because it tastes brilliant, just like its eggy friend mayo, and what are you going to do anyway, drink the stuff? That said, this version has a high amount of roe in proportion to oil, resulting in a rich tarama which is a perfect complement to the bright iron twang of the charred Tenderstem. Cook it on a BBQ for maximum smoky effect.

Charred Tenderstem with Taramasalata Recipe

250g smoked cod’s roe
50g stale white bread (weight without crusts)
100ml milk
125ml groundnut oil
75ml olive oil
Juice of 1/2 – 1 whole lemon
Pepper
Turkish or other chilli flakes to garnish

Tenderstem broccoli (allow as much per person as you like, 5 or 6 stems should do it)
A little oil, for frying

Cut the cod’s roe lobe in half and scoop out the roe with a spoon. Soak the bread in the milk for a few minutes, then add to the bowl of an electric mixer with the roe (you could also do this by hand if you have endless stamina and/or you don’t particularly like yourself). Mix the two oils together. Turn the whisk on high, then add the oils as you would if making mayonnaise, i.e in tiny drops to start off with, then in a very thin steady stream, incorporating it slowly. Beat in the lemon juice and some pepper.

Cook the broccoli for 3 minutes in boiling salted water, then drain. Either brush a griddle pan with a little oil, then char it in the pan, or cook it on a BBQ. I prefer the latter. Serve on top of the tarama, sprinkled with chilli flakes.