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Special

Jacques Pépin Makes Beef Carpaccio

Premiere: 11/19/2021 | 00:05:13 |

Pépin teaches us his recipe for beef carpaccio, which includes a thinly pounded filet of beef, garnished with scallions, olives and capers.

About the Episode

Serves 2

“Someone long ago made this dish of thinly sliced beef drizzled with mayonnaise and mustard. The colors were reminiscent of the work of the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio, whose canvases often featured magnificent reds and yellows. This version retains the vivid red of the beef topped with garlic, scallions, capers and olives. It’s a great dish for a dinner party, as you can prepare the meat and arrange it on plates, then cover with plastic wrap and stack in the refrigerator. Garnish just before serving.” —Jacques Pépin

Ingredients:

5 to 6 ounces beef fillet
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ garlic clove, very finely minced into a purée
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced scallions/green onions
1 tablespoon capers
12 Kalamata or other black olives
Lemon wedges, for serving

Method:

Using a sharp knife, trim off any fat and slice the fillet into two pieces crosswise. Set each piece on plastic wrap or parchment paper and top with a second layer. Using a heavy meat pounder or small pan, pound the meat until it is about ¼-inch thick. You may need to separate the layers of plastic wrap or parchment if they stick together. Sprinkle two dinner plates with salt and pepper and set the beef on top, and sprinkle again with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic and oil. Sprinkle the scallions and capers over the beef and drizzle with the garlic-oil mixture. Add the olives and garnish with lemon wedges. Serve lightly chilled.

QUOTE

"I feel that if Jacques Pépin shows you how to make an omelet, the matter is pretty much settled. That’s God talking. "

— Anthony Bourdain

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

(bright music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin, and this is 'American Masters at Home.'

So here I'm going to do a carpaccio with beef.

And of course there I'm buying the best possible, which is the filet of beef.

This is about five, six ounces at the most for two people.

Two and a half, three ounces per person does a nice serving.

I would put that on a piece of plastic wrap, like this.

Another piece of plastic wrap on top to pound it.

To pound it, you want to pound it pretty thin.

If you don't have this, I use the back of a little skillet, it's perfectly fine too.

I do this, sometimes I lift it up because sometimes you pound it and the piece at the top here goes underneath, so it doesn't extend anymore.

Okay, so that's pretty fine.

I want a large plate like this.

Usually I put salt and pepper, and you have to be generous with the salt and pepper, probably close to a quarter of a teaspoon per person.

So here.

That will be one portion.

A little dash, again, salt on top, pepper, and what I would do now, if I had to do a dozen of this, I would put a piece of plastic wrap on top, pound another one, on top, on top, on top.

I would pile it up like that and leave it in my refrigerator until I'm ready to serve it.

Then when I'm ready to serve it, I would put the garnish in it.

That's about the best way to do that, you do that with fish as well, doing it ahead like this.

And even if you don't use plastic wrap, you can do it with this, but at that point, like fish or meat, you have to wet it.

You wet it to pound it, otherwise it tends to crush.

The garnish, I'm going to put a little piece of garlic here, about half a clove of garlic.

Very finely chop into a puree here.

Fine puree, and I will put that with about two tablespoons of olive oil.

Yeah, one tablespoon per person.

Then I have scallion I will have here.

Of course you could put onion, you could put them, you could garnish it with pickled onion.

Okay.

That would be my garnish this.

Some capers, and maybe some olive.

And that would be the way I would finish it up and I'm ready to serve it.

This.

The capers.

I have a tablespoon, so it's half a tablespoon per person.

And the garlic with the oil here.

Okay.

Some of the olive on top.

So the olive I split in half, still have about five, six olives.

And I would put a piece of lemon, but I would put a little wedge of lemon here and I would leave it on the side just when it's ready to serve.

Because if you press this, the citric acid in the onion is going to cook the meat, it'd become more whitish, doesn't look too good.

So only when you serve it, then you press the lemon on top, or the guests can help by himself.

And this is it, a carpaccio of beef.

Happy cooking.

(bright music) Thank you for joining me.

For more, subscribe to this channel, or watch here.

Thank you and happy cooking.

(bright music)