Beef carpaccio with parmesan and truffle

I adore chilled rare beef, and this rustic-style carpaccio is quite the showstopper. Many carpaccios are presented with wafer-thin beef, but what I’ve done here is far more Te Mania style — generous to a fault, and served up in a casual “help yourself” sort of manner.

Recipe by Al Brown from Te Mania: The Story of New Zealand’s Iconic Angus Stud by Lorain Day. Bateman RRP $49.99 from Paperplus.

Ingredients

½ cup	Red wine vinegar
½ cup	Caster sugar
2 cups	Shallots, thinly sliced into 3-4mm thickness
2 cups	Canola oil
1 kg	Eye fillet of beef (Main)
1 drizzle	Canola oil
⅓ cup	Flat leaf (Italian) parsley
1 serving	Parmesan cheese
1 serving	White truffle oil

Directions

Red wine vinegar syrup

1. Pour the vinegar and sugar into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Simmer for 10 minutes to reduce, then remove from heat and cool.
2. Store in a jar at room temperature indefinitely.

Shallot crunchies*

1. Place shallots in a bowl and cover with cold water, soaking for 1 hour. Strain off water, and pat dry with a cloth.
2. Transfer shallots into a small saucepan and cover with 2 cups of canola oil. Place on a medium heat and bring up to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes until the shallots begin to caramelise and the bubbles become smaller as the moisture is cooked out of them.
3. As soon as they reach a light amber colour, quickly remove from the heat, carefully strain off the oil, and spread the golden shallots on paper towels. They will become very crisp as they cool.
4. Once cold, store in an airtight container.

* You can buy crisp shallots at Asian supermarkets, but homemade are so much better.

Beef carpaccio

1. With a sharp knife, trim the silverskin off the beef fillet. Cut the beef into manageable lengths (3-4 cm).
2. Place a skillet on a high heat to get hot. Season the pieces of beef generously with the salt and pepper. Add a dash of canola oil to the skillet, then sear the beef pieces as quickly as possible to caramelise the outside (around 1 minute each side).
3. Cool, then wrap the lengths of seared beef in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up and become cold right through. (Can be done one or two days before.)

To serve

1. Using a sharp knife, slice the beef across the grain as thickly as you would like them. Lay beef slices out flat on a wooden chopping board or platter.
2. Coarsely grate about 1⁄3 cup parmesan over the beef, then scatter with parsley leaves and crispy shallots.
3. Drizzle with red wine vinegar syrup and a little white truffle oil, then lightly season with salt and pepper.