How to Make Steak Tartare

This is a traditional French dish that goes way back, way, way back Steak Tartar and the name is tartar comes from the French assigned. Well there were tartar’s from Central Europe who made a habit of coming through Europe and burning down villages and stealing everything and taking those sack in Rome. Well they were so busy with all these stuff all the time they haven’t time to cook, so they will just eat meat raw. To commemorate this guy’s and to keep it on everybody’s mind who they were, the French named the dish after them Steak Tartar. So we start out with a piece of fillet mignon, that this piece of fillet mignon weights about 6 ounces. Now since were going to – since were not going to cook it, I really want to have the highest quality meat that I could get anywhere. Now I went to a special butcher shop one of highest super markets here in Las Vegas and they carry, it’s a natural product that the animals are raised without any steroids. They are raised naturally, a lot of degrees, they move around, it’s real meat, it’s the way meat used to taste. So I’ve got this 6 ounce filet mignon and the first thing I’m going to take is a very sharp knife. And it has to be really sharp obviously, a dull knife will hurt you a lot faster than a sharp one. Because a dull will have to tends to lot to do more work behind and when you press it harder it’s going to slipped and you might hurt yourself. So my knife is sharp and I’m going to cut very thin fillet mignon slices here, probably they’re not even a quarter inch. Okay and I’m going to cut right through this entire fillet strips. It’s also best when its – it cuts a lot better when it’s cold also fresh out the refrigerator. Now once I’ve got my strips really lay them out like this and were going to – I’m going cut the same width again and I’m going to cut the same width again. This is how we in the days to make hamburger in the old days. Chop it with a knife now, okay so I want to get small pieces like you see here all through out. Again, I’m going to lay my strips to be felt, okay and were going go the other way. Okay, now let’s put this aside, I’ve got some that I already, in this bowl here three 6 ounce fillet mignon so were going to triple for this one here. Now you see here, I cut this earlier with the nice, it’s almost like a course brown on the ground beef. It’s also a lot lean on a ground beef since you saw the steak that we started with and it had marvelisation but it really doesn’t have a lot of extra fat. With my hamburger a lot of times. They take all the fat they can so otherwise, before they grind them in the hamburger, not the case here. So we got to loosen up, we got to loosen on my beef a bit. Then were going to add some shallots into the mix, okay for a 6 ounce fillet I would have just take one shallot chopped but since I’ve got this fillets in here I really figure about this, this is about ½ and that’s three and a little bit more. Okay three shallots and to this now I’m going to add about a tablespoon – well since we’ve I’m going to do a little bit on that let us say about a tablespoon and a half add a little more of peppers. I’m also going to add about three teaspoons to this mix here, three teaspoons of Worcestershire Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and I’m going to put a good shaft from half a lemon in here. Okay there you go just like that and be careful with this lemon, lemons spits. Now I want to mix this and I’m going to fold it very gently, I’m going to put a pinch of salt in here, also just a little bit that’s about it, right, okay. Were going to fold it in and otherwise when I’m going to turn the bowl were going to scoop from the back towards the front. Okay and this is used at the back of the spoon to push it all together because I really don’t want to work that meat and I don’t want to beat it or really kind of turn it too much, just want to fold it in gently. Spread with the back of the spoon just, just so that we evenly mix all ingredients. Now the sauce for this dish today, you can go a number ways on the sauce I’ve seen this dish served with a reduced balsamic that was a really nice presentation. Today what we are going to do is were going to make a, were going to make a Dijon aioli it would be kind of like a mayonnaise. Were going to make it from scratch and the basis of the flavor is Dijon mustard. So for now let’s put aside over here and were going to start our dressing over here. Now I’ve got here a quarter cup of champagne vinegar and a quarter cup of Dijon mustard. We put that right into our bowl were also going to add to here one egg yolk, okay. Also dilly have, dilly half of the lemon I have it’s called that about a tablespoon, put a pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper. Now the next step I’m going to combine these ingredients here. All right now the next step we’ll going to make it a emulsion, now everybody knows that oil on water doesn’t mixed but they can be encourage the way we, were going to bring them together. A mayonnaise is a permanent emulsion. In other words an emulsion is when oil and water we kind of make then come together. An example of a temporary emulsion would be Italian salad dressing with the oil and vinegar and the herbs and we sake it up before we put – so we mixed it temporarily we should pour in our salad then we put the bottle back on the table and you can see the separation comes back. Now with this – if we start with an egg yolk and we add the oil very slowly, we got to create a permanent emulsion. So that those – they got to be suspended permanently. Okay and the way we do that we start out with your acid which is your lemon juice and your vinegar and your egg yolk and your seasonings, this are much off the salt and pepper all go together in this bowl. Now the next step is to start the adding of the olive oil and since was making the salad dressing I always used a high quality olive oil, extra virgin you can see the color and were talking about the color and a little bit of the break. And you can see the nice green color of the olive oil, all right that is what you want to use. The light stuff I will sauté with that and I will use it on the stove, this I don’t want to heat this up too much when I cook because it has a tendency to burn a lot easier than the lighter olive oil. So now when we start to add this into the – when the start you want to go – you want drizzle it initially and this is like very slowly like you see me doing now. And as we start the work the molecule starts to get, to start to get a constant to each other here and they start to kind to hold each other up. Then I can go a little bit faster, now once I start to build the foundation, the basis of the emulsion then I can start to add the oil a little bit faster, you see me it ‘s actually, its pouring – were pouring a lot quicker now. I’ve got a nice foundation already established here and were going to just pour the rest of that oil right in there, okay there’s my sauce now. I new a Chef that when he start to make an emulsion the way he started so slowly that he would just dip the whip into the oil and then used the whip to turn into the yolks. Just because he really wants to have that strong, that good foundation and he knew the way to do it to start it slow. So now got my oil already to go and I’m going to place on this side over here and were going to present our Steak Tartar. And what I’m going to do let me take a dish and get this ready. And I have here a very high tech culinary tools it’s a jar, it’s top of a jar [Laughs]. Now I want to take, going to scoop some of this meat into this jar, the jar top, you could use a cooking coat if you have one that you like to serve. They always like to find this morning has Santa Clause and you know Rudolf. I don’t know about making Steak Tartar in the shape of “Rudolf the red nose reindeer” so I got the jar top. Okay, this is very gently I’m going to fill the inside and then so we give it a tap, were just going to present right in the middle of the plate like so. And then were going to take my aioli and Dijon aioli and I’m just going to drizzle it like so around the Steak Tartar. And then for a garnish also were going to use some chopped parsley and just a couple of cappers, okay and then here we are Steak Tartar.