Tartare

A restaurant benchmark, and perfecting your home game with Ester by Mat Lindsay and Pat Nourse

I judge restaurants based on their tartare, beef or otherwise. It’s become one of my trusted benchmarks when I’m working, and when I’m not I’ll always order it with the excuse that if I’m eating out, I’m still working. A neat trick in ordering what I want. It doesn’t have to be classically Parisienne, and I love a left field riff, but it has to offer contrasts, and freshness, being a dish that relies upon raw meat and egg yolk.

Image: Patrica Niven (from Ester by Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse)

If I’m honest I judge people (a little) on their like or dislike of it. Vegetarians and vegans are exempted; they’ve made a stand for a myriad of reasons. But the finickity meat eaters of the world do just slightly aggravate me. They’re not doing any harm you might say, but they may (in part) drive the obsession with prime cuts, and are likely the person at the table saying oh no no when I order something raw, rare, or eye up the offal. I know this all sounds a bit absurd but in truth I’m always on the lookout for dining companions who don’t tick the finickity box, will eat what I order, and won’t start to critique at the table.

Now it seems that I can also judge a book by its tartare. The extract that you’ll find below from newly released Ester by Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse, doesn’t just give you one tartare method, it gives you five. We’ll get into the book later in the week or next, and not exactly a spoiler, but it’s one of the best of the year.

Mat’s recipe could easily become your new home staple, whether you’re entertaining or it’s dinner for one. That’s saying something for a dish that I think a lot of home cooks could feel a little uneasy about. But trust yourself. At the same time, it makes me think of a tartare that I’ll probably never attempt at home, because I don’t have a firearms licence, or a fresh enough source of marsupial.