Hand-Cut Beef Tartare with Cured Egg Yolk & Sourdough Crisps

⏱ 45 min · Serves 4

A proper restaurant-plate tartare: silky hand-chopped fillet spiked with capers, cornichons and shallot, crowned with a jewel-like salt-cured egg yolk you grate over like bottarga, and shards of olive-oil sourdough crisp for crunch. Start the yolks a day ahead — the rest comes together in twenty minutes.

Per serving: 410 kcal · 30.0g protein · 21.0g carbs · 22.0g fat

Ingredients

• 4 very fresh free-range egg yolks
• 400g fine sea salt
• 200g caster sugar (for the yolk cure)
• 400g beef fillet tail, trimmed, very fresh (ask your butcher for tartare-grade)
• 2 banana shallots, very finely diced
• 2 tbsp cornichons, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp baby capers, rinsed and chopped
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Tabasco, or to taste
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the crisps
• 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped tarragon
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• Flaky sea salt and coarsely cracked black pepper
• 1/2 small sourdough loaf (about 200g), day-old
• 1 small garlic clove, halved
• Handful small watercress or mustard leaves, to serve

Method

1. A day ahead, cure the yolks: mix the sea salt and sugar, spread half in a small container, make 4 dents with the back of a spoon, and slide a yolk into each. Cover completely with the remaining cure and refrigerate 24 hours.
2. Rinse the cured yolks gently under cold water, pat dry, then sit them on a rack in the fridge (uncovered) for 1–2 hours to firm up. They should be waxy and gratable.
3. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Slice the sourdough as thinly as you possibly can, brush both sides with olive oil, season lightly and bake on a tray for 10–12 minutes until deep gold and snapping-crisp. Rub each warm crisp with the cut garlic and cool.
4. Chill your knife and a metal bowl. Slice the fillet into 5mm planks, then strips, then dice into neat 3–4mm cubes — chop, don't mince, and work quickly so it stays cold.
5. In the cold bowl, fold the beef with shallot, cornichons, capers, Dijon, Worcestershire, Tabasco, olive oil, herbs and lemon zest. Season generously with flaky salt and lots of cracked pepper. Taste on a crisp and adjust — it wants a bright, sharp edge.
6. Plate at once: press the tartare into a ring mould (or shape with two spoons) in the centre of each chilled plate.
7. Grate a cured yolk over each portion with a microplane so it falls like golden snow. Drizzle a thread of olive oil, scatter watercress, and serve immediately with the sourdough crisps alongside.