Carpaccio a la Marketman

The food at L’avant Comptoir in Paris a few weeks before Christmas inspired a homemade version ofcarpaccio… I rarely do carpaccio at home because I don’t trust the quality of most raw beef available in Manila (provenance, sourcing, handling, freshness, cooties, etc.), so the only other time I wrote about a carpaccio, I seared the surface of the meat first, but left the interior basically raw, see the old post, here. But serendipity was kind on a visit to the grocery, where the butchers were putting out some incredibly fresh looking imported tenderloin, so I decided to take a chance…

Back at home, I sliced the newly defrosted meat from the grocery into roughly 1/4 inch slices, placed the slices between plastic wrap and flattened the pieces until rather thin. There is a school of thought that this process ruins the meat, and one should slice it very thinly instead, so do whatever you prefer…

Season the meat with some salt and pepper, drizzle good extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, and top with young arugula leaves (I also used thinly shaved radishes) tossed in the same dressing. Top with lots of shavings of parmiggiano reggiano and enjoy. Everything really hinges on good fresh beef, but otherwise this is one of the easiest dishes to prepare and it tastes terrific!