I don’t normally beat my meat to get it juicy and tender. I was watching Jamie Oliver on TV last night and he made a dish with chicken breast, breadcrumbs, and garlic. It involved using a rolling pin to beat the meat to tenderise it and to beat the breadcrumbs and garlic into the meat.
Dedicated to Jamie Oliver
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I figured, rather than chicken and in addition to breadcrumbs, I could add some nuts to make a crumbed, nutted, and beaten piece of meat. I had some leftover Italian bread from last weekend, some Queensland nuts as well as some garlic and fried shallots to make the coating for the rump steak (which I bought from Coles for $AUD7).
While I’d normally cook steak by sous vide or reverse sear, it was a bit different to tenderise it by pounding it with a lump of metal. I don’t have a meat mallet to beat my meat so I used a coffee tamper.
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Recipe
It’s important to read the recipe before cooking because the timing of processes needs to be understood.
- Rump steak
- Bread stale
- Queensland nuts
- Fried shallots
- Garlic
- Rocket
- Lime
- Olive oil
- Queensland nut oil
- Iodised salt
- Whole black peppercorns
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Put the bread, Queensland nuts, fried shallots, and garlic into a food processor and make a fine crumb.
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Layout some baking paper on the bench.
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Spread some Queensland nut oil on the baking paper and spread it out with your hands.
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Slap your meat down on the paper on one side and then fold over the other side to cover your meat.
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With a hard heavy object beat your meat to flatten it all over.
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Uncover the meat and put some of the crumbs onto the meat and then recover and beat your meat again to impregnate the meat with the bread, nut, garlic, and shallot crumb.
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Do this to the other side too.
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Heat up a cast-iron frying pan and add some neutral high vapour-point oil.
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Fry the steak for about three minutes each side.
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Allow the steak to rest for at least five minutes.
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With a sharp knife and using a rocking action slice the steak. Avoid a sawing action so you preserve the attached bread and nut crumb.
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Add rocket leaves, halved cherry tomatoes, and sliced red onion to a mixing bowl.
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Add a good squirt of olive oil to the mixing bowl and mix everything.
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Squeeze some lime juice and mix everything.
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With tongs transfer the rocket salad to a dinner plate and then lay the strips of steak over the top.
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Shoot a photograph.
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Eat the meal.
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Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post.
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Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Recipe Video
Disclaimer I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate the energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs. I’ve been told the gallery doesn’t always work on older versions of Windows Internet Explorer. I suggest Google Chrome or using a Mac.
Rump steak, garlic, bread, Queensland nuts, and fried shallots. 
Rump steak before the beating. 
Coffee tamper 
Beat your meat. Rump steak after a partial beating. 
Beaten meat with crumbs and nuts 
Beaten meat with crumbs and nuts beaten into the meat 
Crumbed and nutted beaten rump steak in a cast-iron frying pan 
Crumbed and nutted beaten rump steak in a cast-iron frying pan 
Resting crumbed and nutted beaten rump steak 
Resting crumbed and nutted beaten rump steak 
Sliced crumbed and nutted beaten rump steak with leaking meat juices 
Rocket, red onion, and cherry tomatoes dressed with olive oil and lime juice 
Rocket, red onion, and cherry tomatoes dressed with olive oil and lime juice 
Crumbed, nutted, and beaten rump steak with rocket salad 
Crumbed, nutted, and beaten rump steak with rocket salad 
Crumbed, nutted, and beaten rump steak with rocket salad 
Crumbed, nutted, and beaten rump steak with rocket salad
Questions and answers
What other implements can you use to beat your meat?
Growing up in the days of glass soft drink (soda) bottles, I’d use a glass bottle filled with water to beat my meat.
You could also use a rolling pin like Jamie Oliver used as well as a meat mallet. I’ve also seen someone use a Chinese meat cleaver.
Rocket or arugula?
In Australia, we call the salad green Eruca vesicaria Rocket but in North America, it’s known as Arugula. Apparently Arugula comes from an Italian dialect (according to Wikipedia).
Final thoughts
- Do you ever tenderise meat by beating it?
- Do you like rocket?
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I haven’t tenderized meat in quite a while. I used to pound chicken breasts in order to make them thinner so that I could fill the inside with cheese and other things–then roll them up and bake them. I’ll have to return to that recipe some time–it was really good. Cheers!
Likewise, I haven’t tenderised meat with a heavy implement for so long. Now, I’ll do it more often.
I think you wrote this post guffawing the whole time Gary!!
we’ve not met in person Lorraine, but you know me well 😂😂😂
This is brilliant and a very clever way to cook rumpsteak. Beating with a coffee tamper is unique too but I love the convenience of searing meat quickly and these nutty crumbs will keep the steak moist. Arugula is awesome too, you can never have too much on the side. Thanks for sharing and also to video share as well.
Thanks, Merryn for your lovely comment. It is very much appreciated.
Looks delicious and healthy. 🌿🌱🍃
Thank you very much Gail 😃😃😃
that sounds absolutely heavenly!!!! I may need to get a bit of meat while north and cook it after hammering the heck out of it. I hammered meat once, I think. It wasn’t memorable. I probably used a hammer- well wrapped. I used to use a glass soda bottle to roll out crusts and biscuit dough.
I’m not a fan of raw greens, they used to disagree with me. I’m slowly introducing them back into my diet as long as I’m near a restroom!
I hope you have fun cooking in the north.
I can see why you would need to beat a rump steak to make it suitable for pan frying. I would only use it for a very slow cooked stew. Rib eye, sirloin or fillet for frying. I have a meat tenderiser wooden mallet. The main thing I would use it for it to make chicken escalopes. I don’t bread them though. I have a lovely recipe which involves screwering the tender little escalopes with herbs and cooking them in a tomato sauce, scallopini, it is called. It is meant originally to be used for veal but I prefer to use chicken.
Thanks, I was looking for veal today but couldn’t find any. The rump was the cheapest steak I could find apart from tough cuts like chuck. Next time, I’ll do a low carb version and not use breadcrumbs and just use nuts, fried shallots, and garlic.