david clark’s 09 passetoutegrains and beef tartare

Update 5.8.2011(4.8.2011)billn

A friend invited me for a tartare evening – it seems there are hundreds of variations, but his was a fifty year-old recipe. Chopped onion, chopped anchovies(!), an egg, paprika, chilli powder, mustard, fresh-ground white pepper, cognac and kirsch. Mix, then add the freshly bought minced beef, mix a little more and finally add a hint more pepper, mustard and kirsch to taste…

I much prefer my egg mixed-in rather than dollopped on top – 15 minutes later we tucked in, served with buttered toast – a good recipe, no obvious taste of fish or mustard! I thought a robust passetoutgrains might be the perfect accompanyment, the David Clark’s 2009 turned out to be rather more elegant than I’d planned – everything seemed to work though, the chilli burn being rather understated so taking little away from the wine…

2009 David Clark, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains
Medium colour. The nose has warm but not overtly ripe fruit, is slightly floral and seems far from a poster-child for gamay. Understated flavours slowly grow rather than deliver impact and interestingly this is completely smooth and supple – again hard to find the gamay! Good texture and pleasingly elegant.
Rebuy – Yes

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There are 2 responses to “david clark’s 09 passetoutegrains and beef tartare”

  1. Tom Blach5th August 2011 at 8:35 pmPermalinkReply

    Was this a Swiss friend, Bill? a fascinating recipe, the cognac and kirsch seeming more unusual to me than the anchovies. It seems to me that the kirsch in particular would stick out, but I must try it.

    • billn6th August 2011 at 4:41 amPermalinkReply

      It was indeed Tom – he’s 70 but lives to play sport and to cook. I’d estimate not a lot more than a decent tablespoon of each alcohol in a recipe that totaled about 600 grams, so I assume 500 was the beef. 300 each was a nice portion for just one course – with the toast. Alcohol/flavour of alcohol wasn’t an obvious component to me, but I don’t have a reference of the same dish without.

  2. Tom Blach6th August 2011 at 1:53 pmPermalinkReply

    I would trust rather few butchers to chop my steak tartare-but I suspect Switzerland does these things rather better.
    Not an easy dish for wine-I think champagne is best, or iced vodka.

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