Oh the glorious day has come. We bought another tenderloin. And I butchered it myself (which I'm getting really good at) and then resesrved a piece of the tenderloin to make carpaccio (raw meat or fish that is pounded out paper thin and served as an appetizer.) Originating in Venice, Italy, it's raw filet mignon, pounded into flat discs. From there you can serve it with a small salad on top, with oil and vinegar, shaved parmesan, etc. I decided to make mine with a homemade lemon mustard remoulade (remoulade being french for "stuff you mix in with mayonnaise".) It's really expensive at restaurants and it seemed so simple to make that it was only a matter of time before I tried it in my own kitchen. Here are the basics of what I did:
- beef tenderloin (suggestedly from the tip end of the roast, but I just used a tenderloin steak I'd already butchered earlier this week.
- mayonnaise (I used olive oil mayo.)
- mustard (preferrably dijon, but I didn't have it so I used yellow and it turned out fine.)
- lemon juice
- sea salt & freshly ground black peper
Ok, so the best way to get your meat to slice really really thin is to freeze it first for at least two hours. Once it's good and frozen, move it out of the freezer, remove bag or whatever plastic you used to seal it in the freezer.
thinly slice the beef into approximately into 1/8 to 1/4-inch pieces.
Don't worry about being exact, just cut it as thinly as you can.
Lay out a piece of plastic wrap on your cutting board, and put the meat on the wrap. Then add a 2nd layer of plastic wrap on top.
Here's the fun part - pound the meat with a mallet until it is paper-thin.
Once all of the meat is sliced and pounded, divide the meat evenly among your plates (however many you're using).
From here you have several options. You can serve with greens tossed with vinaigrette, salt, pepper and/or Parmesan.
I opted to make the remoulade. You just mix the mayo, mustard and lemon juice until you get the right consistency and flavor. Drizzle it over the carpaccio.
Sprinkle salt & pepper over the top and maybe add a few more drops of lemon juice.
