Anchovy elixir
This extraordinary elixir is for me the very apogee of anchovydom; for the anchovy lover, there can be no purer celebration of its qualities. It’s a dip to be eaten with crudités, drink in hand, before you sit down to dinner, but this is equally a sauce – for steak, roast beef, lamb, whatever you feel like pouring it on or eating it with, and I could pour it over almost anything.
Ingredients
- 100g/3½oz salt-packed anchovies (not the ones in oil)
- 3 fat garlic cloves, peeled
- 2½ tbsp lemon juice
- 175ml/6fl oz extra virgin olive oil
- 125ml/4fl oz cold water
To serve (optional)
Method
It might be wisest to follow the preparation instructions on your packet of anchovies, but what I do is soak them in a dish of cold water for 5 minutes, then throw the water out, fill up again, and leave to soak for a further 5 minutes. Then rinse each anchovy under the cold tap, tearing away and discarding the tails. If you want to remove the bones, too, be my guest; you will thereby gain huge respect for those who fillet anchovies for a living.
If using a bullet or other high-speed blender, put the drained anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and the water into the blender and blitz until you have a smooth sauce.
If using a stick blender, put the anchovies into a bowl with the garlic and lemon juice and blitz to a paste. Still blitzing, gradually pour in a third of the oil, and when that’s absorbed, a third of the water, and carry on in this vein until both are used up.
Decant into individual dipping bowls and arrange your chicory leaves or raw vegetables around it.
Alternatively, fry your steak in a cast-iron frying pan over a high heat for 3 minutes on each side. Rest in kitchen foil for 5 minutes. Slice the steak thinly against the grain, transfer to a plate, dribble the elixir over it and scatter a few finely chopped chives on top. Dollop more sauce on your plate as you eat.