Rump Steak with Spicy Sweet Potato Chips and Yoghurt Dip

Buying steak can be notoriously expensive... It's always the most expensive thing on the menu, and when not knowing what cut to choose in the butchers, it can seem safest to go for fillet, the most expensive. Of course fillet is gorgeous, but the other steak cuts, sirloin, rump, and ribeye are all delicious and full of flavour when treated properly by a good butcher. Rump is always my number one choice because it is full of flavour but costs the less money per kilo. Buying from a butchers also lets you choose what size you want... I bought the piece that I cooked for this recipe for around £3.50 which compared to £16+ in a restaurant seems ridiculously good value for a weekend treat!

 I found the idea for these chips in Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's book Vegetables. He uses normal potatoes but I think they're even more special with sweet potato, and healthier too. I didn't stick to the letter on the spices he used, so feel free to adapt the recipe to what spices you have in the cupboard and experiment.

Ingredients Serves 1 

1 sweet potato | 1/2 tsp sweet ground paprika | 1/2 tsp coriander seeds | 1/2 tsp ground cumin | 1/2 tsp fennel seeds | 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder | 2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt | 1 garlic clove crushed | 200g rump steak | salad to serve | Sunflower Oil

Preheat your oven to 200C. Peel your potato and slice into chip or wedge shapes. Bring to the boil in cold water. Make your spice mix: combine all the paprika, coriander, cumin, fennel and chilli in a pestle and mortar (or bowl and rolling pin) and crush the seeds. 

Place a baking tray with oil covering the bottom in the oven. Once the potatoes come to the boil, drain immediately. Cover in spice mix (retaining one teaspoon for later) turning the potatoes so that they are all well covered. 

Add the potatoes to the hot oil. Let cook for 25-30 minutes, turning about half way through. 

While the potatoes are cooking you can make your salad and the yoghurt dip. For the dip simply mix the yoghurt with the crushed garlic and the retained teaspoon of spice mix. 5 minutes before the potatoes are done, cook your steak in a frying pan, about 2.5 minutes each side depending on thickness.