Free Meat at Farmer's Market

Visiting one of London's many farmer's markets is great weekend fun, but unfortunately it is usually an expensive past time. Who can resist all those amazing smells from Angus beef and pork sausages sizzling on barbecues and beautifully coloured vegetables?

Today though, I managed to come away with something for free! This is how I did it: I was looking for a cheap cut of beef with loads of flavour that I could roast for hours. All those cuts were already gone, but a cut I hadn't seen before caught my eye, namely onglet steak. I then proceeded to quiz the butcher on what it was and how it tasted. The butcher hadn't actually tasted it (shock horror!) because he said the advantage of being a butcher was that you didn't need to eat those cuts (gasp!). Apparently, restaurants like to use this cut because it is cheap, but they can sell it expensively. The butcher promptly cut me a piece to take home and try out. Mostly to get rid of me, I think!

A couple of minutes on each side is enough.

A quick internet search once I got home confirmed "Onglet hangs between the 12th and 13th rib. This puts it close to the liver and kidneys, and the meat has a slight offal tang as a result: it's a richly flavoured cut that you should fry quickly and serve with chips. It sounds better in French though: onglet is the classic steak in steak frites."

Tonight's dinner was medium-rare onglet steak with butternut squash chips. The flavour was a mellow beef, no offal flavour whatsoever. Very yummy and we will be having it again.