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Beef Carpaccio with Capers, Parsley and Truffle Oil

Recipe serves: N/A

A Little Background

Carpaccio is a traditional Italian dish and lends itself incredibly well to modern healthy eating. Although Carpaccio traditionally refers to a first course of thinly sliced raw beef, named in honour of the Italian renaissance painter, Vittore Carpaccio, you can now find many modern interpretations using raw seafood and uncooked vegetables, (see tuna Carpaccio). In this dish however we are going with the original; beef. Carpaccio is a perfect option to serve your guests if you want an impressive first course that will take only seconds to prepare on the day. You can prepare all the parts for beef Carpaccio the day before, allowing you to use the time on the day to mingle with your friends or focus on the main and dessert courses.

What you'll need

400 grams beef tenderloin (be sure to ask your butcher for mid-loin as the tail will be too small and the head will be too sinewy and large)
1 small purple onion (finely diced)
3-4 tbsps capers in vinegar
½ bunch of continental parsley (flat leaf)
Truffle oil
Sea salt flakes
Freshly cracked black pepper
Truffle salt (optional)

Chefspencil.com - Beef Carpaccio with Capers, Parsley and Truffle Oil

What to do
Freezing The Meat:

Lay the beef on your chopping board and if need be cut the ends until they are symmetrical and flat.
Take the piece of beef tenderloin and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap lengthwise.
Take the excess plastic on the ends and twist until the meat is tightly squeezed from all sides.
Push and shape the meat in the plastic until it is as cylindrical as possible with two flat ends.
On a small plate, stand the wrapped meat on one flat end and press another small plate on the other flat end, try to keep the meat as upright as possible.
Place the meat and plates in the freezer overnight.

Slicing:

Remove it from the freezer and unwrap it.
Carefully slice the meat on your slicer on the thinnest setting but where you are still getting whole slices off it.
Arrange the slices on a large plate and press until even.
Wrap each plate tightly in glad wrap and refrigerate until serving.
If you don’t have a slicer you can ask your butcher to slice it and lay the slices out on paper in layers for you. They may ask you to freeze it or they may do it for you.

Alternative Method:
If you don’t have a slicer or worse yet; a friendship with your butcher, firstly I would highly recommend you get one, the friendship with the butcher that is. In the mean time you can use the following method, although unless you are very handy with a knife and you keep your knives very sharp your results may not be as uniform and you may become very frustrated.

Place the piece of tenderloin into the freezer for 2 hours. Unlike in the slicer method you only want the meat to be firm from the freezer, not frozen hard.
Place the meat on your cutting board and with a very sharp carving knife slice the beef as thinly as possible.
Place the slices onto the plate and press with your fingertips to even out any thick spots and make it all evenly thin.
Wrap each plate tightly in glad wrap and refrigerate until serving.

Serving:

Sprinkle some of the diced onion and parsley over the meat.
Arrange a few capers around the meat.
Drizzle a little of the caper vinegar around.
Drizzle a little of the truffle oil around.
Season liberally with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Many fine food stores now carry truffle salt, which is essentially a mixture of sea salt, cracked pepper and shaved fresh truffle. The truffle is very aromatic and flavours the salt and the pepper; this mixture can be used in place of the sea salt and pepper for that little extra decadence.

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Recipe By Paul Hegeman
Styling By Paul Hegeman
Photography By Jason Hamilton
© Chef's Pencil 2007