Ilya and I are having steak tartare for dinner tonight. Along with some toasted bread, green salad and potato gratin.
If you're not familiar with this dish, steak tartare is a finely chopped raw beef fillet that is usually served with pickles, mustard and a raw egg yolk. My relationship with steak tartare has developed along the same lines as with oysters: from incomprehension to interest to passionate love. Though I never had that nose wrinkling abhorrence towards steak tartare, at first I simply skipped it in menus and went to safer items. But with times I came to a conclusion that sticking to safe and familiar food is not only boring, but limiting as well. If you don’t try new things, you rob yourself of new impressions, pleasant surprises, great finds. You stop growing.
It takes guts to try an unknown. Sometimes one or two times are not enough to understand a new food. It’s like literature or music or cinematography. You try and come back and try again. And once you get it, your world becomes wider and more colorful.
Read on if you’re ready to start food adventure. First destination, Steak Tartare.
I'm not a big fan of a traditional French way of serving steak tartare: a pile of undressed minced meat with garnishes and sauces on the side. I prefer a contemporary American way where meat is dressed with a flavorful sauce and most of the garnishes are mixed with meat.
You will need:
- About 1/3 lb tenderloin or sirloin steak of the best quality and freshness you can find
- 1 tsp capers, minced
- 2 Tbsp sweet onions, finely chopped
- 2 tsp sweet cornichons/gherkins, chopped
- A couple of stems of garlic chives, chopped
- About 1 tsp parsley, chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Dressing:
- 1 Large organic egg yolk
- 1 garlic clove
- 1-2 salted anchovies fillets
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½-1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ cup organic canola oil
- Black pepper
- Lemon juice
- Tabasco or other spicy sauce (optional)
Garnish:
- Raw egg yolk
- Caper berries; chives; radishes; daikon sprouts; hard boiled quail eggs (optional)
- Relishes: radish and lettuce with champagne vinaigrette; spicy avocado with lime vinaigrette
Also:
- 1 day old baguette (that is, slightly stale and easy to slice thinly)
Thinly slice the baguette and arrange on a baking sheet. Start heating the oven to 400-425F. Meanwhile, chop all the pickles, onions etc. and make the dressing. Put a garlic clove on a cutting board and whack it with the flat of a knife. Remove the skin and mince the garlic together with anchovy fillet(s) into a paste. Put an egg yolk, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and the anchovy and garlic paste into a bowl and stir to combine with a whisk. Slowly add oil while keeping on whisking until an emulsion starts to form and all the oil gets incorporated. Add lemon juice to taste and voila - here is a perfect dressing for steak tartare. If you would continue adding oil to this mixture it would eventually turn into nice Caesar dressing, so if you happen to have leftovers of this one, go ahead and whisk in more oil.
Back to steak tartare, now it’s time for the meat. Thinly slice the steak; cut each slice into thin strips and then dice into teeny pieces. Should I tell you that the knife should be very very sharp? Put in a bowl. Add capers, onions, gherkins, parsley, garlic chives, and about 2 tablespoons of the dressing. Mix well. Season with salt and black pepper. Check the taste and add more dressing if needed.
Put the baguette slices into the oven, medium rack, and cook about 2-3 minutes. Turn them over and cook another minute or two or until slightly browned and crispy. In the meantime, plate the steak tartare.
Comments