Beef Carpaccio

Another favourite summer dish of mine that requires no cooking is Beef Carpaccio.  The secret to a good carpaccio is to use quality, lean steak, and slice it as thinly as possible.  A good cheat is to pound the slices with a meat mallet until they are lace-thin and tender. Foods that are sour or piquant make good accompaniments for carpaccio. In addition to the ones listed, you could also experiment with pickles, onions, mustard dressing, jalapenos, tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce.

Given that being quick and easy to make is one of carpaccio's most endearing qualities, I don't like to fuss too much with side dishes.  I usually just serve it with some crusty bread, and maybe a simple salad.  If you wanted to go to a bit more effort, I think that some new potatoes tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, spring onions and parsley would go beautifully. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 piece of lean fillet steak of a decent thickness
Handful of rocket
2 tsp capers
1/2 a lemon, in two pieces
1 tbsp chopped chives
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
A drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Method

Trim any fat or sinew off the steak, and slice it as thinly as you can.  Place the slices, one at a time, in between two double thickness sheets of cling film and pound with a meat mallet until super thin.  Arrange the slices in a single layer on a plate or platter.

Season the meat with salt and pepper, the juice from 1/4 lemon, and grate over a generous amount of parmesan. Scatter the herbs and the capers. Top with the rocket and drizzle a little balsamic over it.

Serve the carpaccio with extra salt, pepper, lemon, vinegar and olive oil available for you to add to taste as necessary.

An alternative method of serving would be to arrange the meat on the platter and season only with the basics - salt, pepper and olive oil - and let each diner add their own accompaniments as they see fit. The benefit of this is the fun factor; diners can experiment with a variety of flavour combinations and customise their carpaccio.