Winter Lamb Tartare
Tristan Rosier, Arthur
Tartare is one of my favourite dishes, not only to make but also to eat. Wherever I visit a restaurant, if there’s a tartare on the menu, you can be sure I’ll order it. At Arthur we’ve always had a raw dish on the menu. Because as we rotate our menu so often, we couldn’t do a signature dish, instead we chose to do a signature technique. The reason we love a tartare is down to it’s deceiving simplicity. While it looks simple, it has its own complexity about it, and showcases the high quality meat in the dish. Not to mention there are so many flavours you can create to go with it, which we love doing at Arthur to try and introduce people to new ingredients or flavour combinations they may not have seen before.
Ingredients
Cured egg yolk
1 Hill Top free range egg yolk
100g Ollssons salt for curing
Pickled kohlrabi
30ml sherry vinegar
15g sugar
30g kohlrabi
Macadamia & horseradish cream
100g Hand’n’Hoe Organic raw macadamia nuts
40g verjuice
40ml water
20ml sherry vinegar
30g fresh horseradish
10g Ollssons sea Salt
50ml Alto Olives olive oil
20g dijon mustard
Artichoke chips
500ml vegetable oil for frying
3 Jerusalem artichokes
Serving preparations
250g Moorlands Biodynamic lamb loin
20g brown onion
1 punnet Darling Mills Farm woodland sorrel
Garnish
1.5tsp kohlrabi pickling liquid
10ml Alto Olives olive oil
10g Ollssons sea salt
5g pepper
6g Hartley truffle
Method
Cured egg yolk (optional)
This section is optional, if you choose not to do, it is not replaced with anything.
1. Place half of the fine salt into a small bowl.
2. Using the whole egg, create an impression with the shell into the salt for the egg yolk to sit.
3. Crack the egg and separate the yolk from the white (save the whites for another dish, we won’t be using it in this one).
4. Place the egg yolk into the salt.
5. Sprinkle the remaining salt on top of the yolk so it is covered while remaining whole.
6. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 24 hours.
7. After 24 hours, rinse the yolks under cold water and pat dry with paper towel. They will still be quite gooey.
8. To finish, place them onto a cake rack and put into an oven set to 60 degrees celsius for 12 hours.
Pickled Kohlrabi
1. Pour the sherry vinegar and sugar into a small saucepan and bring to the boil on a medium to high heat.
2. Once the sugar has dissolved into the vinegar, remove from the heat and allow too cool to room temperature.
3. Peel the kohlrabi and dice into 0.5cm cubes.
4. Place the kohlrabi into the pickling liquid and refrigerate overnight.
Macadamia & horseradish cream
1. In a blender combine raw macadamia nuts, verjuice, water, sherry vinegar, freshly grated horseradish, salt, olive oil, dijon mustard.
2. Blend on high until completely smooth.
Artichoke chips
1. In a saucepan, heat vegetable oil to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Slice the Jerusalem artichokes on a mandolin 1.5mm thick. If no mandolin, just ensure the slices are as thin as you can get with a knife.
3. Scatter the sliced artichoke into the pot of oil and fry, stirring occasionally until golden brown.
4. Use the strainer to remove from the oil, place on paper towel to drain.
Serving preparations
1. Remove the lamb from the fridge 30 minutes before required to temper, trim off any sinew then dice the lamb into 0.5 cm cubes. This will ensure the lamb is the perfect temperature to eat
2. Finely dice the onion to approximately 2mm in size rinse the onion under cold water in the strainer, pat dry with paper towel.
3. Pick and wash the sorrel. Remove any woody stalks, wash under cold water and pat dry.
Assembly
1. Create the lamb mixture by combining lamb, diced onion, pickled kohlrabi, 1.5tsp of kohlrabi pickling liquid, olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper in a large bowl.
2. Mix everything together thoroughly.
3. On your serving dish, place a heaped spoon of the macadamia and horseradish cream onto the plate. Using the back of the spoon, spread the cream out to create a round bed of cream for the dish to sit on.
4. Spoon the seasoned lamb mixture onto the macadamia cream to cover it.
5. Crumble the fried artichoke chips with your hands over the lamb mixture.
6. Place the sorrel leaves evenly on top, approx. 10-15 pieces.
7. Using the microplane, grate the truffle and cured egg yoke (optional) all over the dish, covering everything.
Tips
– This recipe needs to be started the day before. You’ll need to cure the egg yolk (if you’re doing it) and pickle the kohlrabi the day prior to ensure they’re ready in time. The kohlrabi could be done and kept in the fridge for a few days.
– Tempering the lamb means it will be more flavorful and will be more enjoyable to eat.
– You’ll want to get a super high quality lamb loin, preferably something from a butcher rather than a supermarket packet. The Moorlands Biodynamic lamb is perfect for this.
– You’ll need to make a bit of the macadamia and horseradish cream to ensure the blender can work properly. With the left overs, you could use it to as a dip with crackers, or you could serve it with a piece of meat or fish.
This recipe is presented in partnership with Smeg Australia.