Steak Tartare

This month, we’re spending time with Stefano Fraternali and Ale Delfino from Garage Bar, a natural wine bar in Sant Antoni that also serves up small plates. The pair also run Vella Terra, the annual independent natural wine fair held at the Estació del Nord. Here they share their version of steak tartare with us. It’s a great dish to make if you’re looking to up your kitchen game or impress a date.

Tell us about your food & you wine philosophy.
We’re really interested in sharing our knowledge about natural wines with our customers. We’re a neighborhood bar with a very international list, from easy drinking wines to more radical examples. As for the food, our goal is to use the highest quality ingredients, straight from the source whenever possible, to create our dishes. We don’t have a stove or oven here in the bar, which we prefer, because it allows us to feature the best, farm fresh, organic ingredients with as little manipulation as possible, just like we like our wines.
Where do you get excellent quality meat appropriate for a steak tartare?
For our steak tartare, we use only the highest quality meat, which we get from Mestres butcher shop on the corner of Calàbria and Floridablanca. We use organic free-range eggs, and other ingredients which we feature at Vella Terra, such as El Cardener olive oil from the Barcelona Olive Oil Company. Although we’ve given you quantities, when we make it, they often vary. Each time we make the dish a little bit differently, eyeballing the measurements, but always with a whole lot of love. We suggest you play with the recipe until you get it exactly to your liking.
I hear you do tastings with winemakers. What’s on the agenda this month?
Yes, we have regular events with winemakers and other producers who share with us their newest releases. This month, we’re excited about our free Saturday wine tasting sessions, which run from 12:30-1:30. Afterwards we’ve been hosting an informal vermouth hour, featuring an all-natural vermouth from Casa Pardet.

How to:

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together, meat through mustard, until well blended. Add salt, pepper and chile to taste. Take a final taste, and adjust ingredients until they’re to your liking. Serve alongside tender leafy greens, toast points, and a glass of good, natural Carinyena.