(PUB)
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The other day, being in Cluj, I made this multicolored, “multiflavor” and “multivitamin” salsa (which is like a salad) together with my friend, Emil, with whom I had this entire discussion regarding some metaphysical concepts that didn’t directly involve food. I’m not sure whether the starting point of the discussion was lovage or wine, but I’m very certain that lovage, when mindfully used, can reveal itself to the human palate in surprising forms. But, as we all know, the devil is in the details, which will be proven once again today.
We therefore start with anything else, more precisely with what I should have started: a little pork never hurt nobody (or something like that). In our case, the pork is represented by a few pieces of brisket with ribs, very nice and perfectly sized for one piece per serving (I calculated, 4 servings cost a bit over 12 euro of you cook this at home). For those, you need – well, you don’t need, but we like – a marinade made from the zest of two medium limes, their juice, three tablespoons of olive oil, a bunch of parsley, finely chopped, a finely diced garlic clove, a bit of salt and a pinch of sugar. Dip the pieces of meat well into this mixture and leave them at low temperature for at least six hours. I put them straight in a tray (you’ll understand why further on) and I put them into the even, under the serpentine heated at 200 degrees, 20 minutes on one side and 20 minutes on the other.
Alriiight. Let’s see what’s the deal with the multicolored salsa. Half a bell pepper, a few multicolored tomatoes, 2 large tomatoes of a sweeter variety, a pepper as hot as you can handle, a quarter of a cucumber (100 grams), one green onion, one young red onion (it can also be white), a bunch of cilantro, two bunches of parsley, three-four lovage tubes, half unripe avocado, half ripe mango, the juice from two lemons and the zest from one of them, 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
Chop everything you can into small cubes, cut the tomatoes into quarters and then dice them, slice the onions. Dice the aromatic herbs as well as you can.
Mix everything in a large bowl, season it and add the lemon juice and the oil. Don’t be brutal when you mix. Cover the bowl with a plastic foil and put it in the fridge until the steak is ready.
The salsa looks like this:
I would love for you to smell it, but you have to deal with that on your own. I almost forgot: in the end, I added to the salsa a tablespoon of raw pine nuts and a few sunflower seeds, also raw.
The meat looks like this:
If the tray scares you, come to your senses. I intentionally left it like that, for two reasons. The first one is that, by squeezing half a lemon and rubbing the bottom of the tray with a spoon or with a fork you get a very tasty sauce which I then pour over the steak. It’s a shame to waste all that taste. The second reason was described extensively a few days ago, in this post, and it has to do with the fact that Fairy Platinum is able to clean anything that you don’t need form a tray, however resistant or impossible to clean it might seem.
As you have probably caught one by now, this recipe is part of my limitless cooking miniseries, meaning cooking with no self set limits, no self censorship for the sake of some imagined fears. I dare you to give it a shot, it won’t hurt anyone. Cook, take photos, post on the page dedicated to the contest and you can win a 1000 euro voucher with which you can buy skillets and pans, 20 Fairy Platinum packages or one of the 10 seats at the workshop coordinated by yours truly. Concerning today’s recipe, I assure you that if you place this salsa next to the steak and you will not intervene with potatoes or other garnish (or bread), you will feel good before, during and after.
It’s not that complicated.
On the other hand, it’s delicious regardless of the view of the plat, regardless of where you would start eating its content.
That’s it for today. Stay healthy.
Special thanks to
Oana Bodnariuc, Authorized Translator
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facebook.com/oana.bodnariuc