Recipes

Lamb, tomato and olives — the Mediterranean had this figured out centuries ago

All around the Mediterranean, the cheap bone-in cuts of lamb end up in pots like this one, and there's a reason the tradition never died. As the forequarter chops braise, their fat melts into the tomato and turns an ordinary tin into a sauce with real depth — rich, glossy, and salted through with Kalamata olives. It's an unhurried sort of cooking: fifteen minutes of honest work at the stove, then the pot minds itself while you don't. Serve it over soft polenta or just hand around bread and let everyone mop.

Three minutes a side, and the Greeks were right all along

Cutlets were built for the barbecue. They're thin, they're tender, and that little strip of fat along the edge bastes them as they cook — all they ask of you is fierce heat and a short memory. So do what a Greek taverna does: toss them with olive oil, lemon zest, dried oregano and garlic while the grill heats, cook them hard and fast, then squeeze the lemon over while they're still hissing. Four cutlets, one bowl, dinner for two in twenty minutes. It's barely a recipe. It's more of a habit worth having.

Proof the everyday pack in your share can do occasion-grade dinner

Bourguignon has a reputation for being fancy. It isn't — it's French farmhouse food, built the same way we'd build a stew here: brown the beef properly, soften the vegetables, add wine and let time do the heavy lifting. The 480g pack of diced beef in your share is exactly the kind of cut Burgundy farm cooks always reached for. This is a Saturday afternoon job where the oven does most of the work, the house smells incredible for two hours, and dinner tastes like far more skill than it actually took.

Bright, bold, and better than anything you'll order in a restaurant

Thai beef salad — yam nua — is one of the most vivid, flavourful salads in the world. Thinly sliced cooked beef dressed in lime, fish sauce, chilli, and toasted rice powder, scattered with fresh mint and coriander. The key is to cook the beef to medium-rare and slice it very thin. The round, when treated correctly, is ideal — its clean, lean flavour lets the dressing take centre stage without competing.

Little rolled parcels that look far cleverer than they are

Your round arrives as thin steaks — exactly what braciole-style rolls call for. Spread each steak with a spinach, feta and pine nut filling, roll it up, secure it with a toothpick, sear, and braise gently in tomato sauce until tender. The filling keeps the lean meat moist, every slice shows a spiral of green and white, and the whole plate looks like far more work than it was.

A Russian classic that turns a humble cut into something genuinely luxurious

Beef stroganoff has suffered terribly at the hands of the 1970s — tinned mushrooms, packet soup mix, and beef that was overcooked into grey shoe leather. The real version, made with properly prepared round steak, sautéed mushrooms, a sour cream sauce enriched with Dijon and paprika, is genuinely extraordinary — and nothing like what you may have had at a school canteen.

The deeply aromatic broth that heals everything

Pho is one of the great soups of the world — a deeply aromatic, star anise and cinnamon-scented broth, served over rice noodles with paper-thin slices of beef. The traditional recipe takes 6–8 hours to make properly, and this version is not quite that, but it is close enough to be extraordinary. Your Farmer round and bones (if you have them) produce a broth with genuine body and depth.

Set it at lunch. Come home to dinner.

All the comfort of a pot roast, rebuilt for the thin round steaks in your share pack. Round is lean, dense muscle that rewards a slow braise — four to five hours on LOW and the steaks emerge fork-tender, surrounded by sweet root vegetables in a deeply flavoured braising liquid that doubles as a sauce.

The marinade that does the heavy lifting so the BBQ can do the rest

Topside is one of the best cuts to marinate — its lean, open-grained texture drinks up a marinade beautifully, and the acidity in the marinade does meaningful tenderising work overnight. The result, on a hot BBQ, is a charred, flavourful, juicy steak that over-delivers on its humble origins.