How to make veal tartare with pickled shallot and Parmesan-paprika palmiers – a fancy dinner party starter that’s lean, light and elegant
- Using veal instead of beef makes this dish – an ideal dinner party appetiser – leaner and lighter in texture and flavour so it only needs to be subtly seasoned
- Pickle the shallots the day before for more flavour. The palmiers can be made in advance, as can the veal, which should be chilled before chopping
This is a pretty, elegant and easy-to-make starter for a dinner party. The pickled shallot and Parmesan-paprika palmiers can be made several days in advance. You can prepare the ingredients for the veal tartare a couple of hours before serving, but be sure to store the hand-chopped meat in the coldest part of the refrigerator.
Veal tartare with pickled shallot, finger limes and Parmesan-paprika palmiers
Because veal is leaner than beef, tartare made with this meat is lighter in texture and flavour than the more common steak version. For this reason, I omit some of the usual seasonings used for steak tartare, such as Tabasco, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Use veal from humanely reared animals.
Finger limes – a type of citrus from Australia – might be difficult to find. Also called “citrus caviar”, because the juice vesicles are round and pop gently in the mouth, finger lime adds a lovely crunch to the veal tartare.
If you can’t find these limes, mix in the finely grated zest of one lemon to the veal at the same time you add the salt: the flavour will be different, but delicious nevertheless.
The pickled shallot should be made at least one day in advance.
Ingredients
For the pickled shallot
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10 grams (1¾ tsp) fine sea salt
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10 grams (2½ tsp) granulated sugar
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100ml (¼ cup + 3 tbsp + 1 tsp) rice vinegar
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150 grams (6 oz) shallots
