OSTRICH TAGLIATA

Solving the puzzle of a box of ingredients after losing the recipe

There’s nothing nicer after a long day at the office than to get back to a home-cooked meal. To take it one step back, you can come home to a box full of exciting ingredients, all perfectly measured out with not a hint of wastage, a recipe card and bottle of wine to go with the meal. This was the UCOOK meal kit delivered to my home this week. The problem was that, after unpacking everything, I misplaced the recipe card and had to guess what UCOOK guest chef Lapo Magni of Lapo’s Kitchen in Cape Town’s kit had in mind for the two fillets of ostrich steak, fresh figs, rosemary, huge potato, cashew nuts, broccoli florets, balsamic vinegar and coconut sugar.

My version: I cut the potato into blocks, boiled them in salted water, drained and combined the blocks with the broccoli, rosemary, drizzle of olive oil and seasoning and roasted them in a pan.

Imagining the balsamic vinegar to be a glaze of sorts, I added the coconut sugar to it and reduced it till syrupy. Not being sure where the sachet of beef stock featured, I set it aside.

Just before serving I fried the steak in a preheated griddle pan, well seasoned.

After resting, I served it sliced on top of the potato and broccoli, now all tender with yummy crispy brown edges. Pouring over the balsamic glaze, I topped it off with the green leaves, slices of fig and a sprinkling of cashews. Delicious. So easy to put together and just enough for two with no leftovers.

After finding chef Lapo’s recipe later, I see I hadn’t strayed far from his method. Preparing a meal using the kit is fun and full of surprises. If ostrich is not your thing, there are many different kits to choose from and two kits for two people delivered to your door costs about R520, depending on what meal takes your fancy.