Steak tartare

Steak tartare is a favourite dish of Darcy's since he was very young, knew little French, and inadvertently ordered a dish quite unlike what he had been expecting. In the old days, Darcy prepared this dish in the manner hallowed by tradition, without any concern for bacteria. Then came the Mad Cow epidemic. So Darcy switched to venison. But then Darcy moved to Turkey. Venison became impossible to obtain and family and friends in Turkey strongly cautioned him not to eat raw meat. However, Darcy observed Turks in their millions eating çiğ köfte and not dying by the thousands. He then searched a little and came up with the following recipe, which he hopes will mollify the concern of said family and friends. Especially as mad cow disease apparently does not exist in Turkey.

Ingredients

600 gr pure fillet steak (cut as a cube)
2 egg yolks
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco
2 pinches salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tbsp capers
1.5 tbsp chopped pickled gherkins
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 sprig parsley, very finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil (of course virgin - this is a recipe)
4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pommes frites

Instructions

Upon reaching home, place beef in the coldest part of the fridge for two hours. Pour 1/2 tbsp olive oil into a frying pan and turn up the heat.

When the pan is very very hot, take the steak and sear all its sides. Do not cook, sear. Remove beef from pan and cut off the sides. (Use the cooked meat elsewhere.) Slice the remaining raw beef (roughly 500 gr) and place in a food processor. Chop, not too finely. Add the lemon, the remaining olive oil, the salt and the parsley to the beef towards the end of the process. Cover and refrigerate chopped beef. Marinate for 30 minutes.

(Use the interval to prepare and fry your potatoes.)

Mix the Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, mustard, salt, black pepper, onion, half of the capers, and half of the gherkins. Remove beef from fridge and mix. Arrange into shape, carefully place the egg yolks on top, and sprinkle with the remaining capers and gherkins. Serve immediately with the pommes frites.

This is supposed to be a spicy dish. If your capsaicin tolerance is high or your insides are made of corrugated iron, you should increase the amount of tabasco used.

Notes

Do not buy the meat from any old butcher. And tell your butcher that you will be eating the meat raw. If you see but the shadow of an attempt to blink, desist. Make something else to eat, cooked. (In fact, Darcy generally recommends that you enter into the closest and warmest relationship with a good butcher, at least so far as is possible without enraging your "significant other". Of course, if your significant other is your butcher, then all the better. However, Darcy will be suggesting very close relationships with a number of suppliers and he does not recommend polygyny or polyandry.)

Why, you may ask, does Darcy reserve one-sixth or so of the meat he buys? The answer is straightforward: the majority of bacteria accumulates on the surface of meat. Searing sharply reduces their incidence. The marination reduces bacteria even further. How long you marinate depends also on how finely the beef has been chopped. 15 minutes may be enough, or 45 minutes may be required. However, marination does conflict with the texture. If you marinate overlong, the meat can become gooey.

Eggs too can be troublesome. Use fresh eggs and make sure the yolk (and white!) do not come into contact with the outer shell.

Picture courtesy of some other food nuts.