A guest at The Restaurant once asked if she could wear this dish, our version of surf and turf, as a bracelet. I’m not sure if she was serious. We begin by curing strip loin in pine and then shave it paper-thin and top it with a slice of raw hamachi. We counter the fattiness with pickled kohlrabi, raw tiny onion, and caviar. We serve the dish with sorrel nori, which is made by pureeing sorrel and then drying it. The result looks like traditional nori but is incredibly tart and nuanced. Some people say this dish is very Scandinavian. I prefer to say that the cured meat, caviar, crème fraîche, and onion make it Eastern European. Either way, it can be worn as jewelry.
Ingredients
CURED BEEF PREPARATION
- 280 grams | 10 ounces Wagyu strip loin
- 945 grams | 4 cups kosher salt
- 145 grams | ⅔ cup sugar
- 25 grams | ½ cup young pine shoots
- 2 grams | 1 teaspoon allspice berries
- 2 grams | ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
- 2 grams | 1 teaspoon whole cloves
- 2 grams | 1 teaspoon white peppercorns
- 15 grams | 1 tablespoon vodka
- 150 grams | 5.3 ounces mature pine needles
- 300 grams | 1 ⅓ cups grapeseed oil
SORREL NORI
- 30 grams | 1 ¾ cups French sorrel, in 1-inch (2.5-centimeter) pieces
- 3 grams | 1 sheet bronze gelatin, bloomed in ice water and gently
- wrung of excess water
- 4 grams | 1 ½ teaspoons Ultra-Tex 3
- kosher salt
PICKLED KOHLRABI
- 12 | baby kohlrabi, thinly sliced
- 250 grams | 1 cup rice vinegar
- 125 grams | ½ cup water
- 125 grams | ⅔ cup sugar
- 10 grams | 0.4 ounce fresh dill
- 6 grams | 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 120 grams | 4.3 ounces hamachi loin
- 100 grams | ½ cup crème fraîche
- 16 | tiny sea beans
- 16 | dill pluches
- 15 grams | 0.5 ounce sturgeon caviar
- 2 | tiny onions, thinly sliced
- 12 | tiny red wood sorrel leaves
- 12 | tiny French sorrel leaves
- 12 | tiny red-veined sorrel leaves
- 12 | silver sorrel leaves
How to Make It
- FOR THE CURED BEEF PREPARATION: Remove any fat and connective tissue from the strip loin. Combine the kosher salt, sugar, and pine shoots in a food processor and mix for 2 minutes, until the pine shoots are pulverized. Toast the allspice berries, coriander seeds, cloves, and peppercorns separately in a sauté pan over low heat for about 2 minutes, until fragrant. Let the spices cool, then transfer to a spice grinder and grind to a powder. Add the ground spices to the food processor, then add the vodka and mix for 2 minutes, until well incorporated. Put a small amount of the salt mixture in a metal pan. Lay the strip loin on the salt mixture and then pack the remaining cure around the loin. Be sure there are no gaps in the salt mixture to avoid oxidation. Cover the container tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 30 hours. Rinse the beef under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Place in a vacuum bag and seal on high. Freeze for 8 hours.
- Combine the pine needles and grapeseed oil in a small saucepan, heat to 120°F (49°C), and hold for at least 4 hours at that temperature. Strain the oil and let cool to a temperature of 40°F (4°C).
- Cut 10 pieces of parchment paper, each 5 inches (12 centimeters) square. Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each piece with the pine oil, then stack the pieces, oiled side up, so that both sides of each piece are coated with oil. Pull the beef from the freezer. Using an electric slicer, shave it lengthwise into slices 1/32 inch (1 millimeter) thick. Cut the beef slices into pieces 5 by 2 inches (13 by 5 centimeters). Stack the pieces between the prepared parchment squares and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Store in the freezer to avoid oxidation until ready to use. Place any leftover beef in a vacuum bag sealed on high and store in the freezer for up to 1 month.
- FOR THE SORREL NORI: Bring a saucepan filled with salted water to a boil, add the sorrel, and blanch for 2 minutes. Drain the sorrel, transfer to a blender, and add the gelatin. Mix on low speed for 1 minute.
- The sorrel should not be smooth. With the blender running on low speed, add the Ultra-Tex and mix until it is fully absorbed, about 1 minute. Season the puree with kosher salt, then transfer to a silicone baking mat and spread in an even layer 1/16 inch (2 millimeters) thick. Transfer the mat to a dehydrator tray and dehydrate the sorrel at 125°F (52°C) for at least 6 hours, until dry and crisp.
- FOR THE PICKLED KOHLRABI: Put the kohlrabi in a large heatproof bowl. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, dill, and kosher salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and pour over the kohlrabies. Hold at 180°F (82°C) for 1 hour, then cool in the refrigerator.
- TO SERVE: Cut the hamachi into 4 thin strips each about 5 inches (12 centimeters) long. Lay a beef slice on each of 4 flat plates and center a piece of hamachi on top of each beef slice. Place a few dots of crème fraîche on top of the hamachi and a few slices of pickled kohlrabi resting on top of the crème fraîche. Garnish with the sea beans, dill pluches, small piles of caviar, green onion slices, and leaves of wood, French, red-veined, and silver sorrel. Break the nori into jagged pieces (about 1 inch/2.5 centimeters square) and put a few pieces on each plate.
