Recipe: Seared fillet of Black Angus beef, braised shin bon-bon and truffle mash

Level up your beef game with this high-class recipe that brings maximum flavour

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 x 180g centre cut Black Angus beef fillets
• 30g butter
• 1 clove of chopped garlic
• 1tbs chopped fresh rosemary
• 1tbs chopped fresh thyme

For the braised shin bon-bon

• 200g Black Angus shin of beef
• 80g mirepoix of vegetables
• 1 sprig each of rosemary and thyme
• ½ tsp tomato purée
• 500ml chicken stock
• 500ml veal stock
• 500ml red wine
• 20ml vegetable oil
• Maldon sea salt and black pepper
• 1 jacket potato, peeled and made into potato string

For the truffle mash

• 600g Maris Piper potatoes
• 50ml milk
• 50ml double cream
• 250g unsalted butter
• 1 Périgord truffle, cleaned and finely chopped
• 4ml white truffle oil
• Maldon salt and ground white pepper

For the vegetables

• 8 baby carrots
• 4 baby leeks
• 4 baby turnips
• 250g spinach, picked and washed
• 4 bunches watercress, processed into a smooth purée

Method

Heat the oil, add the mirepoix and sear with the rosemary and thyme until a golden brown colour has been achieved.

Add the tomato purée and cook out, add all the red wine and stocks and simmer.

Sear the shin of beef in a hot shallow pan and add to the simmering liquid to slowly braise for 4-5 hours.

When finished, reduce the stock to a gelatinous sauce, flake the shin meat and form into four balls, wrap in the prepared potato string and deep fry till golden brown. Keep in a warm place for service.

Truffle mash

Bake the potatoes at 180°C until soft, and pass though a fine sieve into a clean bowl.

Add the milk, cream and half of the butter and beat in vigorously. Season with chopped truffle, the truffle oil and the salt and pepper. Retain warm for service.

Vegetables

Blanch the baby vegetables in boiling salted water and refresh in iced water. Reheat in a little butter and seasoning and keep warm.
Wilt the spinach in a little butter and warm the watercress purée.

Service

Sear the steaks in the remaining butter (heat until foaming) with the teaspoons of rosemary and thyme. Baste the steaks gently, and when cooked leave to rest for a few minutes.
Slice the steaks in half and place onto a pool of the watercress purée, and on top of the wilted spinach, place the glazed vegetables around with the bon-bon and the truffle mash.
Finally, finish the sauce with a knob of butter and serve.

Recipe taken from In a Class of its Own, by Gary Hunter and Adam Kay

Recommended wine Gary Hunter chose the Chateau Rozier, St Emilion, 2010, from the wine list of Westminster Kingsway College's Escoffier restaurant, which is also where the recipe originated.

Gary Hunter is head of culinary arts at Westminster Kingsway College