Beef Carpaccio

   Carpaccio is an Italian dish mainly served as appetizer from Piedmont region of Italy. Piedmont is known for it's "Carne Cruda" which means "Raw Meat" and carpaccio is one of the best known carne cruda which is thinly sliced raw beef  which can also be veal, venison, salmon or tuna.

     The most important thing to make beef carpaccio is finding really fresh and good quality beef and using the right cut of the beef. Tenderloin is the right part of the animal, using filet mignon which is the smaller end of the tenderloin would the nicer since it is more tender and lean. You serve it on greens with salt, pepper, lemon juice and parmesan shavings, arugula is my favourite, the peppery taste compliments very well with the beef cut. This time I had really nice and fresh radish, the crunchiness and the colour was great addition to the dish.

     It has to be really thin cut. The general consensus is wrapping tight in stretch film and freezing and cutting with a slicer, it will give you perfect cuts. You can still have good looking slices by hand. If you do it by hand there is two ways you prepare your carpaccio; after you slice your beef as thin as you can by hand, you can press and pull with your knife or you put your slices between two parchment paper and pound gently or roll with a rolling pin. To me, the best result is rolling the slice between parchment papers.

ATLANTIC FISH COOKED IN MEDITERRANEAN WAY; RED SNAPPER

Cooking the fish as a whole with the skin, bone and the head is one of the easiest way of  cooking your fish and the best part is it remains more tender and juicy.  Red Snapper is native to West Atlantic Ocean, especially Gulf of Mexico but the texture and the taste profile is very similar to the Mediterranean fish.  And here is the Mediterranean way we cook our fish;

Just stuff the cavity with fresh, aromatic herbs, garlic and lemon, my choice of herbs is parsley, oregano and bay leaves. Feel free to use any other fresh herb. Cook at 180ºC / 350ºF for about 20-25 minutes depending on the size. This was 450 gr / 1 pound fish and I cooked 20 minutes.

Lemon is the secret for the taste. Flavour of lemon and seafood are complementary. Fish has mild and distinct flavour because of the amines which is very similar to ammonia. And like ammonia, amines are alkaline. Mixing the alkaline with acid, citric acid from the lemon in this case, they react and form amine salt which has no smell and no taste. So you can enjoy your fish without having the strong fishy taste.  As a result lemon is great to reduce and enrich the fishy flavour while the crisp and clean flavour of the lemon allows aromatic tastes from the herbs shine.

Tips for cleaning the fishy smell off your hands; Fish oils are hard to remove from the skin. Citric acid is great for breaking the oil up. After the fish dinner a bowl of warm water with lemon slices is perfect to get rid of the unpleasant scent off your fingers.

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