Roast sirloin aromatised with vine shoots, filaments of thyme and natural colorants, ash, salt and crispy radishes

Andoni Luis Aduriz

For 4 people

For the sirloin
2 400 g pieces of sirloin
100 ml of arbequina olive oil
5 g of vegetable ash

For the vine shoot dough
325 g of wheat flour
30 ml of extra virgin olive oil
5 g of brewer's yeast
160 ml of water
5 g of natural leaf colourant
5 g of salt

For the crispy radishes
500 g of baby radishes
15 g of salt
1 l of mineral water

For the ash salt
1 bundle of vine shoots
100 g of salt from the Añana saltpans
200 g of thyme leaves

For the leaves
8 Rau-Ram leaves (Polygonum odoratum)

 

For the sirloin
Trim the meat, eliminating only part of the excess fat, which will make it tastier and protect it during cooking. Eliminate the tendons and nerves from the pieces of meat.
Mix the arbequina olive oil in a terracotta bowl with the vegetable ash until it dissolves. This natural ash is sold as a food additive and is easy to find.
Place the meat in a vacuum bag with the ash and oil and leave to macerate in the cooler for 24-48 hours.

For the vine shoots
Add the natural leaf colorant to the water and stir with a spoon. Mix the yeast, more or less at room temperature (25°C), into the preparation. Dissolve the yeast and add the oil, stirring thoroughly with a spoon. Sieve the flour with the salt and pour it into a mixer, add the water with the colorant, yeast and oil and mix for 10 minutes. Take out and roll into a ball. Place it in a bowl and leave to ferment for 1 hour at room temperature (about 25 °C).
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut it into broad strips. Flatten with the palms of your hands and press firmly with your fingers to form strips with little bumps and lay on a baking tray; leave to rest for 20 minutes until small grooves form and stretch them out.
Bake in the oven for 3 minutes at 200 °C, remove and cut the strips in half lengthwise while still hot, so that the “new shoots” don't break.

For the crispy radishes
Wash the vegetables in cold water and pull off the skin, leaving the flesh intact. Cut into four wedges.
Prepare a brine with water and salt, and drop in the radishes. Leave to soak for 15 minutes in a vacuum and then remove them.

For the ash salt
Place the vine shoots on a wire rack and burn them, almost reducing them to ash; add the thyme leaves and leave them to dry and burn with the rest of the embers, gathered on a tray to prevent them from falling under the rack. Filter the ash through a fine sieve.
Prepare a mixture of salt and ash in equal proportions. Blend with a mixer or with a hand blender to homogenize the mixture.

Wash the leaves in plenty of water mixed with disinfectant for vegetables, using the recommended solutions. Drain and rinse under the tap. Set the leaves to one side in closed, damp containers, between layers of kitchen paper.

Burn lots of vine shoots on a wire rack with a large quantity of embers. The vine shoot embers don't burn for long but heat fiercely. When the shoots have all been consumed and the embers are bright red, place the wire rack on the bottom, inclining it so that the melted fat doesn't fall onto the embers and make flames. Brown the pieces of meat quickly for 5 minutes on both sides. Now raise the rack so that the heat can filter gently into the meat and the blood can rest. Touch to check the level of cooking. Push a meat thermometer into the centre of the meat and when it has reached about 45 °C cover with a cloche, turning the meat over every 3 to 5 minutes. Keep doing this until ready to serve.

Place the vine shoots on a dinner plate, overlapping and entwining them. Sprinkle ash around them.
Cut the meat under a heat lamp on a hot surface. Arrange the pieces of meat on the vine shoot base. The cut end must be turned down so that the part of the meat that can be seen is completely black and not easily identifiable. Season the top of the meat with a pinch of ash salt.
Distribute the radishes around the meat with the vine shoots and garnish with a few Rau-Ram leaves.