I learnt the reverse-sear method of cooking a thick-cut steak from Gordon Wright who wrote about it in his book Karoo Food. It involves first cooking the steak slowly, on a grid high above low coals, then doing that hot sear.

Ingredients

1 x 1 kg ribeye steak on the bone/ a.k.a. tomahawk steak

3 or 4 large rosemary branches

Coarse salt

Ground black pepper

Olive oil

Method

I made a fire to one side of the braai and pushed a modest amount of coals over to the furthest side, and spread them out, mostly to the edges of the area over which the steak would cook.

Position the grid high above the sparse coals. Place several sizable rosemary branches over the coals so that they will emit herby smoke to float upwards and flavour the steak. Their presence also slows down the cooking further, which is the point of the “reverse sear”.

I’m not one for a meat thermometer, preferring to taste and touch and gauge by the senses. For a more technical approach have a look at Gordon’s method here. I seasoned my steak and cooked it gently for about 40 minutes in this way, turning about 20 minutes in.

I then banked up plenty of hot coals while the steak was resting and finished it with the grid close to the coals for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, followed by 8 minutes’ resting before serving.

This was one to share, cut into strips, served with 2 large brown mushrooms and two halved courgettes cooked on a pink salt rock preheated over hot coals on the braai grid. DM/TGIFood

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