On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 8 lamb topside steaks, beaten thin
• 60 g lamb biltong, shaved paper thin
• 16 sage leaves
• Flour, to dust
• 60 g butter · 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150 ml dry white wine
• Black pepper · lemon
• Very little salt — the biltong is already salted

Method

1. Lay a few shavings of biltong and two sage leaves on each steak. Secure with a cocktail stick pushed flat through the layers.
2. Dust the plain side only with flour. Pepper it. No salt.
3. Butter and oil hot. Steaks in biltong side down first, 90 seconds.
4. Turn, 60 seconds. Out onto a warm plate.
5. Wine into the pan, scraped, and reduced by half. A last knob of butter swirled in off the heat to thicken it.
6. Sauce over, sticks removed, lemon on the side. Straight to the table.

Cook's note. Why it works. Saltimbocca needs a cured, salty, thin-shaved layer on top. Lamb biltong is exactly that, and it makes the dish taste of one animal instead of two.

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