I fed five hundred people with this recipe, which is an awful lot of beef! But the beauty of it on the barbecue is that you just put one big piece of meat on the grill, and minutes later you can feed a large crowd. It will get you used to cooking big bits of meat on a grill too, which is exciting and a good skill to have if you enjoy cooking with fire.

BBQ Bavette with Soy, Ginger and Garlic

SERVES 10

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 tbsp caster sugar

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated

• 2-cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

• 2kg bavette or skirt steak

EQUIPMENT

• barbecue

• meat thermometer or probe

Combine the salt, pepper, sugar, soy, garlic and ginger in a large bowl. Add the steak, rubbing the marinade into all the nooks and crannies of the meat. Leave to marinate for an hour or two at room temperature. Alternatively, cover and put it in the fridge to marinate overnight. Just make sure you remove it from the fridge 1–2 hours before you are going to cook so it comes back to room temperature.

Light your barbecue about 40 minutes before you want to cook. Put the grill on in advance so it is hot, and make sure it is clean. When it is super hot and the coals are burning white, put the steak in the middle of the grill. Don’t move or touch it, just leave it for 4 minutes. The total cooking time will depend on how thick the steak is, but I find it is usually 4–5 minutes on each side for rare to medium rare. Have a warm plate or board, and a sharp knife ready.

After 4 minutes turn the steak and just leave it in position, don’t move it around. It should have taken on some lovely colour. After another 4 minutes give it a prod with your finger; if it still seems very soft and bouncy in the middle it is still too rare. Just leave it for another couple of minutes. For rare it should feel like prodding the palm of your hand at the base of your thumb, while holding your forefinger and thumb tips together. Or it should read 45-50°C on a meat thermometer. Keep prodding it and observing how it changes.

When you think the steak is ready, remove it from the grill and leave to rest somewhere warm, or on a warm board or plate with some foil loosely covering it, for 5 minutes. Resting is very important, both in life and when barbecuing meat… the meat will relax and the juices will be retained. Don’t worry about it going cold, it retains the heat for quite a while, but cutting it too soon will result in a pool of blood and possibly tough meat.

Have a look at the meat and determine which way the grain, or the fibres, of the meat are running, then carve the beef in thin slices about 1cm wide, slicing across the grain of the meat, rather than parallel with it. This results in tender little strips.

Lay the tasty strips of beef in a tangled pile on a warm board, sprinkle with a little salt and serve.