Ingredients

  • 1 pound grass-fed tenderloin of beef, finely minced, very cold
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted grass-fed butter, 1 cm dice, very cold
  • 1 shallot, finely minced
  • 1 clove garlic, grated on a micro plane
  • 1 tablespoon fresh grated horseradish
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon garlic scapes or garlic chives, finely minced
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 4 yolks of pastured eggs
  • 1 avocado, cut into 2cm pieces
  • 1 tablespoon basil, minced
  • 1 tablespoon mint, minced
  • 1 tablespoon cilantro, minced
  • 4 tablespoons pickled Grenoble peppers (recipe follows)
  • 2 tablespoons Arbequina olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • fresh pepper
  • coarse sea salt
  • flaxseed and sea salt crisps (recipe follows)

Instructions

  1. Briefly freeze the beef for 20-30 minutes to deeply chill it and firm it up, then finely mince with a very sharp knife. Add to a medium-sized mixing bowl over ice. Season with kosher salt and fresh pepper, then working with a rubber spatula, fold in all remaining ingredients except egg yolks, butter, avocados, and sea salt.
  2. Once thoroughly mixed and seasoned to taste, carefully fold in the chilled, diced butter, making sure to keep the whole mixture very cold so that the butter doesn’t lose its shape or begin to soften.
  3. Evenly distribute the tartare into four chilled small bowls, filling the bottom of the bowl, leaving a slight indentation in the middle to nest the egg yolk. Add 1 yolk to each dish and sprinkle with a little sea salt. Finish by garnishing with the pieces of avocado arranged around the yolk.
  4. Serve right away with flaxseed crisps on the side (recipe below).

Pickled Grenoble Peppers

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Grenoble peppers, thinly sliced (if you can’t find Grenoble, any sweet, thin-skinned pepper, like Banana peppers or Anaheim peppers, will do)
  • 3 3/4 cups apple cider vinegar/ or white wine vinegar
  • 3 cups water
  • 9/16 cup sugar
  • Satchet: garlic, coriander seed, thyme, rosemary, guindilla , black peppercorn, mustard seed, fennel seed.

Instructions

  1. Combine everything except the peppers in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.
  2. Add the sliced peppers and remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  3. Once cooled, store in a glass canning jar or a large tupperware. Peppers will keep up to two weeks in fridge, or longer if you can them.

Flaxseed and sea salt crisps

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup flax seed
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/2 cup quinoa, ground into flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Instructions

  1. Soak flax seeds in water for 15 minutes.
  2. Grind up some quinoa into flour consistency. (I use my mini-blender, but a clean coffee grinder would work, too.)
  3. Mix ground quinoa with soaked flax seeds (do not strain).
  4. Add olive oil, sea salt, and baking powder.
  5. Grease a 9×11 cookie sheet then spread the mixture out. Spread it so it fills the entire sheet.
  6. Bake at 375°F until it starts to brown on the edges (probably about 15 minutes), flip and bake a few more minutes.

Photos by Colin Clark.

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