Madeira's festival skewer: large chunks of beef rubbed with garlic, coarse salt, and bay, threaded onto fresh bay-laurel branches and grilled over wood embers so the skewer itself perfumes the meat. Served hanging vertically from a stand so juices drip onto bolo do caco bread.
Also known as: espetada madeirense, espetada em pau de louro, Madeiran beef skewers
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef sirloin or rump, in 5 cm cubes
- 6 garlic cloves, crushed
- 12 fresh bay leaves (plus 4 sturdy bay branches as skewers, if you can get them)
- 20 g coarse sea salt
- 60 g butter, melted
- 1 bolo do caco or crusty country loaf
- black pepper
How to make it
- 1
Crumble 4 bay leaves over the beef with the garlic, salt and pepper and let it sit 1 h.
- 2
Thread onto bay branches or metal skewers, folding a whole bay leaf between every second cube.
- 3
Grill over the highest heat you can raise, 8-10 min, turning for a charred shell over a rare-pink heart.
- 4
Hang each skewer vertically from a hook or prop it over thick slices of the bread.
- 5
Brush with melted butter as it hangs and let the drippings soak the bread below.
Pro tip: The vertical hanging rest is functional Madeira engineering: butter and juices travel down the skewer into the bread, which is served as the first course.
