Springbok Carpaccio with Rooibos Balsamic Reduction

So, you love making food and would like to show off your cooking prowess to your friends and family.

Carpaccio is a simple dish, which allows the bold flavors of quality ingredients to shine. It’s fabulous as a starter or light lunch and is relatively quick and easy to make. Carpaccio is actually shavings of raw meat, and it is said that the slices should be so ultra-thin that one should almost be able to almost see the plate through them. The result is delicate morsels, which have a vibrant flavor and almost melt in one’s mouth.

Ingredients:

For the Rooibos Balsamic Reduction:

1L Balsamic vinegar

8 Rooibos tea bags

2 sticks of cinnamon

4 T brown sugar (my original recipe included honey, but it’s flavor didn’t cut through the stronger flavor of the vinegar, so I replaced it with some brown sugar)

For the Melba toast:

1 Ciabatta loaf (if you can find a loaf that is a day or two old use it, it will be easier to slice)

For the Carpaccio:

200gm Springbok sirloin (I originally thought to use the fillet, but my butcher told me that a Springbok fillet would be way too small for the job)

Good quality olive oil

Salt

Freshly cracked black pepper

a few shavings of Gruyere cheese

a handful of Rocket leaves

a handful or ripe Rosa tomatoes

3-4 T of Rooibos Balsamic Reduction

a few slices of Melba Toast

Method:

For the Rooibos Balsamic Reduction:

Follow the same technique I used for the

Garlic & Oregano Balsamic Reduction

You will need:

  • 500ml Balsamic Vinegar
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
  • about 10 or so cloves of garlic
  • a couple of branches of oregano

just replace the ingredients with the ones listed above.

For the Melba toast:

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Slice the Ciabatta as thin as you can.

Place the slices on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, turning them over after 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on these babies, you want a light golden color, no burnt spots.

Let them cool on a wire rack if possible and store in an airtight container.

For the Carpaccio:

Remove the sirloin from the packaging, place on a cutting board and pat dry with some kitchen towel.

Wipe your work surface with a damp cloth (to make the clingfilm stick) and roll out about 30 cm’s of clingfilm away from you.  Do not tear off the clingfilm just yet, leave the roll on the counter as is, we are going to fold it back over in a minute.

Drizzle a tiny bit of good olive oil on the clingfilm.  Don’t overdo it or you will have a hard time later trying to get the slices to stay put.

Slice the meat into thin slices and place on the clingfilm.  The thickness here will determine how big the slices of carpaccio will be once rolled out, so try a few different sizes until you are happy with them once rolled out.

Roll the clingfilm back over the slices and tear off when you reached the other end.  Work out the air trapped in the film by patting it down from the middle outwards.

Gently roll the slices of meat with a rolling pin until they are nice and thin. Don’t go TOO thin or they’ll break, just be patient and give it a go you’ll soon get the hang of it.

If you find that the meat jumps around under the rolling pin when you try to roll it, use less olive oil on your Be gentle and take your time, roll the slices both horizontally and vertically.

If you would like to serve Carpaccio at a dinner party, I’d advise you to do everything up to this point in advance.  You can place the rolled sheets in the fridge and just unwrap, season and serve when the guests arrive. Just make sure that you seal the edges of the clingfilm so that no air can get it before putting it in the fridge.

The next crucial part is seasoning.  Raw meat without proper seasoning is really not very appetizing at all.  You also want to avoid handling these delicate slices too much, so to season both sides without having to turn them over, I first put a generous amount of salt and pepper on a flat plate, then place the slices on top of that.

Lightly season the top side as well and then we are ready to plate. You will need to adjust the seasoning to your liking, so make a few “tasters” first and then adjust as necessary.

Enjoy!