Ingredients

• 100g/3½oz coarse sea salt
• 50g/1¾oz demerara (brown) sugar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 black peppercorns
• 4 cloves
• 4 x 100g/3½oz pieces of beef bavette
• onglet or thinly sliced rump
• 1 litre/1¾ pint brine (see above)
• 100ml/3½fl oz extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• roughly chopped
• 1 small red chilli
• seeds removed and finely chopped
• 1 lemon
• finely grated zest only
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 8 large salad onions or large bulbous spring onions
• halved lengthways keeping the stalks intact
• olive oil
• for cooking
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1 large banana shallot or 2 medium ones
• finely chopped
• 1 red chilli
• seeds removed and finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• finely chopped
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ½ lemon
• juice only

Directions

• For the brine
• put all the ingredients in a medium non-reactive saucepan with 1 litre/1¾ pint water. Slowly bring to the boil
• stirring as you go to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• Place the beef bavette in the brine and leave
• covered
• for 1 hour. Drain and transfer to a clean bowl. Add the extra virgin olive oil
• garlic
• chilli
• lemon zest and thyme
• then leave to marinate for at least 1 hour.
• Light the barbecue so that it is ready when the steaks have finished marinating.
• Meanwhile for the salsa
• mix all the ingredients together
• seasoning to taste and adding the lemon juice at the last minute.
• Remove the beef from the marinade
• season with salt and pepper and place on the grill in the direct heat zone. Keep a close eye on the steaks - bavette cooks quickly as it is quite thin
• and it shouldn’t be cooked past medium-rare otherwise it’ll be tough. Grill for 2 minutes on each side to char
• then move to the cooler edge of the barbeque to rest for a couple of minutes.
• Toss the onions with a little olive oil
• season with salt and pepper and place directly on the grill in the direct heat zone and cook for 3-4 minutes until charred and tender.
• Thickly slice the steaks and serve with the grilled onions and salsa cruda.