(Salad)Heaven on a plate with beef tagliata

Despite of the rough start, the spring has been gentle to us. With some nice weather, sunshine and the thermometer hitting around 12-15C in March, we must say it feels great!

Lately we have been exploring some new tastes in form of salads, which is not very common in this household. Then again, if all salads were like this...

We have found it slightly difficult to find great meat in the Netherlands. It's not really the quality of the meat but to find it! The pre-packed and cut meat you see on the shelves of Albert Heijn doesn't look very delicious in all that vacuumed plastic and if you don't have the time (or ok, admit that you just don't want to spend your Saturday queuing at butcher's) to visit the local butcher then... well, then you better have a sandwich! We really miss the meat counter at Stockan Herkku! Then again, the meat you find here in the land of green grass and all those ponies cows, is absolutely delicious! 

...If you happen to eventually find some.

Here's a delicious, warm rocket salad recipe we modified a little and added the beef. Originally the recipe is from Jamie Oliver.

The only difficult part of this dish is preparing it all at once. You want to keep the meat and the salad warm yet not let either of them wait (not even for a minute).

Beef tagliata

For two

n. 500 g of Beef tenderloin (in one piece)
Butter

Brown the beef on each side for 2 minutes on an evenly hot pan in some good quality butter. 1 minute is more than enough for thinner "ends". Heat the oven to 150 degrees. Wrap the met in foil and stick the thermometer in the thickest part of the beef and roast until thermometer hits 55-degrees.

Keep the beef in foil until served (min 3 minutes, max. 10-15)

Warm rocket salad with beef tagliata

For two

4 Shallots
8 Slices of bacon
4 Sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp pine nuts
Salt
4 Big handfuls of rocket

Olive oil
Balsamic (vinegar) dressing
Parmesan

Peel and halve shallots. Heat a frying pan and fry off the bacon until crisp. Remove, add a couple of lugs of olive oil to the pan, and add 4 sprigs of thyme, the onions and a good handful of pine nuts with a tiny pinch of salt. Toss around and fry on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until caramelized and sweet (not black!).

Put the bacon back into the pan, toss around, then throw everything into a salad bowl with 4 big handfuls of rocket. Drizzle with balsamic dressing – this will make a natural dressing as it mixes with the olive oil. Serve with some shaved Parmesan over the top.