Margot & Hector Henderson’s Cured Westholme Wagyu Sirloin with a Kohlrabi Salad
The beautiful, marbled Wagyu lends itself very well to this dish. The cure can be 24 to 70 hours – depending on how intense you want your cure. The cure will pull the moisture out of the meat, so the longer you leave it, the dryer the meat. We prefer quite a light cure.
It can be sliced very thinly and served in a lettuce leaf with a little kimchi or horseradish, or as we have done here, a crisp kohlrabi salad and mustard vinaigrette. You can also slice into steaks and give them a grill on the BBQ or on a pan. We would cook them quite rare, about 2 minutes per side.
Pop them into a bun, with mayonnaise, pickles, and a pile of crisp butterhead – and it’s perfect for a picnic.
Ingredients
Cut
Cut
1 kilo of Westholme sirloin (If slicing raw, take a good amount of the fat off, and leave just a small amount of it)
Cure
Cure
2 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp white pepper
250g Maldon sea salt
130g brown muscovado sugar 2 tbsp grated horseradish
2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 coriander seeds
2 cloves of garlic (optional) 1 chilli (optional)
Kohlrabi Salad
Kohlrabi Salad
2 kohlrabi
2 tbsp of dill (pickled and chopped) Mustard and crème fraiche dressing 1 tbsp of crème fraiche
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 tsp of red wine vinegar
120 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 pinch Maldon salt
Black pepper to taste
Method
Cured meat
Toast the coriander and fennel seeds
Roast the cloves of garlic and chillies
With a mortar and pestle, grind the spices, then the cloves of garlic and chilli
Pound all together and mix in the sugar until it looks like a rough paste
Set aside
Prepare the meat by taking a good amount of the fat off, or leave more of it if you are going to do steaks
Sprinkle an even layer of the rough paste over the meat and give it a good rub all over
Leave in a container covered with paper and then press it down with a weighted object
Set aside for 24-72 hours (Note: the longer you leave it, the dryer the meat and the more intense the flavour)
Turn it every now and again
Rub off all the cure and slice the meat into thin slices with a sharp knife
Serve on dry crackers, toast, or with a kohlrabi and dill salad
Kohlrabi Salad
Whisk the crème fraiche, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and red wine vinegar together
Slowly whisk in the olive oil, then season
With a knife, peel the outer skin of the kohlrabi and slice very thinly (It’s best to use a mandoline or a nice, sharp knife, as you want thin folds of kohlrabi)
Mix in the vinaigrette
Margot Henderson & Hector Henderson of Rochelle Canteen London, UK
"Our menu changes with the cuts of meat and seasonality of produce.
We bring together the joy of cooking and working with farmers to source our ingredients and meat cuts. So if we’ve got a shin, we’ll be braising it; if we’ve got a sirloin, we’ll be having a roast.
Getting creative with what we can do differently for each part from nose to tail – it’s a wonderful way to be!
We stand for straightforward. Our cooking is very ingredient-led and we let the flavours speak for themselves.”
