Monday technical challange: Tasting of Beef

Hello!

In the words of my boss; let's have a quick catch up (that one was for you, Piers). I hope your weekends were restful; I had a lovely meal out in a Hawkhurst pub called the 'Great-House'. The house was indeed great, as was the food so no complaints from me. A review to follow. I found time to knock out this week's easy-eats from Wednesday, apologies for the late post but I'll stick it in this Wednesday's unfilled guest-slot for now.

In Michel Roux-Jr style, today's technical challenge is (insert corresponding French name here) tasting of beef. This is my signature dish so I thought it would be a fitting kick-off to our masterclass series held on a Monday. I urge you guys to try this one, if not only bits of it as it can get a bit complicated at times. Try the Onglet, shin, croquettes and carrots for a reduced-work version.

I'd love to here what you think/see the results on a couple of posts.

BenY

Tasting of British Beef: Onglet, braised shin, pressed tongue, truffled (optional) croquettes, carrot puree

Serves 4

Time: 2 days including prep and cooking time. 6 hours for the reduced recipe (no tongue)

Onglet

600g Beef Onglet steak

2 sprigs of Rosemary

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Braised Shin

500g Beef shin

1 head of celery

250g carrots

250 onion, roughly chopped

85ml red wine

400ml Madiera

400ml chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Pressed tongue

1 Ox tongue

3 cloves of garlic

1 onion, roughly chopped

300g of chopped carrot and suede

Peppercorns

Thyme

3-4 litres of water

3 Gelatine leaves

Croquettes

500g waxy potatoes

100ml double cream

50g butter

Bread crumbs

1 beaten egg

Flour

2tbsp truffle oil/20g fresh black truffle (optional)

2tsp salt

Carrot puree

400g carrots

75g butter

Tsp Demerara Sugar (if required)

Method:

Start by preparing the tongue first. Scrub the tongue with a brush and leave to soak in water for half a day. Once it has soaked, drain off the liquid and place in a pan. Cover with 3-4 litres of water and bring to the boil, skimming off the scum before adding the chopped root vegetables, garlic and onion. After 3½ hours the tongue should be ready. Remove it from the liquid and refresh in cold water to cool it down. Then trim off the gristle remove the root at the bottom. Place in a terrine mould/ loaf tin lined with cling film(you can cut it to fit as it will be set later.) Reduce the reserved poaching liquid until the flavour has intensified, then strain off 250ml.  Add the gelatine to this and pour over the tongue, leaving it to soak down into the bottom. Then wrap this in the cling film tightly and weigh down using a set of coasters and weights, jam and mayonnaise jars will suffice. Chill overnight.

Start here for reduced recipe. This should be done first as it takes the longest to cook. For the shin, start by slicing the shin into 2cm thick or 100g slices and seal off in hot butter until completely sealed. A thick bottomed large pan would be useful for this as a lot of liquid will go into the pan with it. Then add the carrots, onion and celery in rough pieces to this and then pour in the wine, Madeira and the stock. Turn the heat right down and leave on a low heat for 3-6 hours. (This could be done the night before or the quantities increased to make a dish in itself).

For the croquettes, boil potatoes until tender and drain off the water. To this, add the butter and mash, adding the cream at intermittent stages until the mixture is thick but smooth. Then add the truffle oil or fresh truffle (if you decide on using it), salt to taste and leave to cool, then chill in the fridge. Once chilled, take a sheet of cling film and put on the potato mixture, rolling it into an even sausage shape and tying tightly at the ends. Chill the mixture again for half an hour so it will retain its shape when deep frying later.

To finish the shin, remove the meat from the liquor and shred with the back of a fork, keeping to one side. Then remove the vegetables from the liquor and discard. Separate 100ml of the remaining liquor for the shredded shin and begin to reduce the rest down into a sauce, skimming off the excess fat from the top. The shredded shin will be added to the rest of the liquor and reduced before serving.

For the puree, boil the carrots until tender. Drain the carrots but retain some of the water for the puree. Put the carrots into a food processor and add the butter and sugar to taste then blend until smooth. Add the cooking stock little by little until the puree is of a thick but smooth consistency. You should be able to dip the back of a spoon in it and the puree shouldn’t run off. Set aside until required.

Final stages

Slice the onglet along the grain into thick wedges, about 100g each. Leave these in a warm place for an hour before use, coating in oil and rosemary. Sear these on both sides in a hot oiled pan with some garlic and some rosemary. 2½ minutes each side for medium-rare. Then place into a warm place to rest for five minutes before slicing into medallions.

For the croquettes, remove from the cling film and slice into even cylinders, coat in flour, egg and breadcrumbs before deep frying until golden brown over a medium heat. Remove once cooked and place in an oven to finish off for five minutes. Reserve the oil for shallot rings.

Place the shredded shin into the reserved liquor and reheat, allowing the meat to absorb the liquor. At this time also finish the sauce with a few knobs of butter; this should form a thick glaze at this point.

For the shallot rings, soak the thinly sliced banana shallots in milk before draining and coating in plain flour. Deep fry briefly until the flour has crisped up and the rings have cooked through.

Slice the tongue along the long side of the mould into even thin slices and lay on the plate. The dress the shin on the left, moving across to the puree in the middle. Place the sliced onglet on top of this and finally the croquette on the right. Pour over the reduced sauce and place the shallot rings around the plate and serve immediately.