My favourite type of steak for cooking on a barbecue is SCOTCH FILLET. In fact it’s also a great cut for pan frying or grilling, although I find when cooking for a larger group, the barbecue is faster with less mess to clean up afterwards.

This juicy cut of meat comes from underneath the rib section of a cow, which is why it is also called RIB-EYE. Scotch fillet is ruby red in colour with just enough marbling of fat to result in a tender, moist and full flavoured piece of meat. The fresh scotch fillet sold by Chilcott’s Butchery is of a particularity high quality and always cooks up perfectly, either in thick rounds for the BBQ or thinly sliced for speedy steak sandwiches. 

It is soft enough for children to easily chew and any leftover pieces are a welcome addition to the school lunch box. I like to slice up the leftover steaks into fine strips and wrap them with salad in Lebanese bread or tuck them into a roll with crunchy cucumber, tomato and a little mayonnaise. 

I have fond memories of my maternal grandmother, Baba Joka always having a ready supply of scotch fillet in one of her well stocked freezers and when defrosted and cooked up, she would encourage my brothers, cousin and I to eat up every last piece on our plate. This included the small amount of fat marbled throughout. I remember going through a very brief “anti-fat-in-my-food phase” when in high school. I say “very brief”, because hearing Baba Joka speak several times with such sadness about food shortages during and immediately after World War two, my feelings of guilt took over, silly obsessions went out the window and I resumed eating ALL of her wonderful food with relish. 

This evening my husband turned out perfectly barbecued scotch fillet steaks, under the eager gaze of our Springer Spaniel Tara, who patiently waited for morsels of meat to fall her way. We took the steaks out of the fridge about an hour before they were to be cooked in order to bring them to room temperature. They were laid out on a platter and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Just before placing on the preheated barbecue plate they were seasoned with ground sea salt and black pepper. 

Earlier in the afternoon I made a Zesty Herb Compound Butter to serve with the steaks. This is an easy but impressive addition to barbecued meat. Compound butter is essentially unsalted butter flavoured with various ingredients such as herbs, spices, condiments like tomato sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, citrus fruits and/or pickled vegetables like gherkins. You may have come across a menu item in a restaurant called “Cafe de Paris Butter”. Well, this is compound butter.  I borrowed the idea for my version of compound butter from the cookbook, My Grill by Pete Evans. This is an excellent guide to cooking food on the barbecue, not only because it covers the basics of perfectly cooked meat, chicken or seafood, but also includes an appealing variety of vegetable sides, sauces, marinades and presentation suggestions. 

Our scotch fillet steaks were served up with rounds of Zesty Herb Compound Butter, fluffy mashed potatoes and steamed stringless green beans tossed in a lemon, olive oil dressing. 

Zesty Herb Compound Butter – this will make a 30 cm long log which can be kept in the freezer for up to 1 month. 

Ingredients
2 small cloves garlic
1 long fresh rosemary stalk, use the leaves only
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons tomato sauce
1 heaped teaspoon capers (rinse well under running water if using the salt stored variety)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
juice of half a lemon
250 g unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into quarters

Using a food processor, place all of the ingredients except for the butter, into the processing bowl. Blitz until finely chopped and combined. 

Add the unsalted butter and process again until the mixture is pale in colour and completely combined. 

Scrape the mixture onto a length of baking paper and using the spatula, pat into a 30 cm long thick sausage shape. Lift one side of the baking paper and roll up the mixture snugly. 

Twist both ends and then wrap the entire piece in plastic wrap as shown in the photo below. 

Place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes preferably longer, before using. 

Compound butter wrapped and ready for the freezer

When ready to serve, simply unwrap and slice thick 3 cm pieces which are then placed on top of the freshly barbecued steaks. The heat from the steak will slowly melt each portion of Zesty Herb Compound Butter, smothering it over the meat and creating a lovely, fragrant sauce.