Roasted beef fillet with truffle and root vegetable infusion

Season the beef shank with sea salt and pepper. Heat a tablespoon and a half of olive oil in a Dutch oven and brown both sides, a few minutes per side.

Remove the beef, add another tablespoon and a half of oil and the roughly chopped carrot, onion and two celery stalks with thyme sprigs and fresh bay leaves; cook four to six minutes until soft.

Deglaze with the two cups of red wine, scrape up the fond and boil down until reduced by half.

Add six cups of veal stock and return the beef; add a little water if it is not covered.

Bring to a simmer, turn the heat down, cover with a dampened sheet of parchment paper and braise on gentle heat for two to three hours.

Check the beef is tender - it should pierce easily with a fork - and remove it.

Pass the liquid through a sieve into a wide-based pan, pressing the vegetables to extract as much as possible; about eight cups. Reduce by half to four cups.

Put the beef in a bowl with enough of the stock to moisten it, season with sea salt and pepper and let the seasoning sit a few minutes.

Pull the beef apart with two forks, then by hand, and divide into 100 gram portions.

Seal each portion in a resealable bag and flatten it evenly with a rolling pin into a thin rectangle. Refrigerate overnight until the beef and the gelatinous stock are set.

For the clarification, blitz 200 grams of beef trimmings, the whites of four eggs, the leaves of a thyme sprig and a rosemary sprig for a minute; a quarter cup of black peppercorns belongs in this mix.

Tip the mixture into the cooled reduced stock and bring slowly up to a boil, whisking constantly, until the egg whites form a frothy crust on the surface carrying the undesirable solids.

Line a colander with soaked cheesecloth folded twice, set it over a pan and ladle the stock through; pass it through a second time. The result is beef consomme.

Shell the pea pods for green peas. Scrub the baby carrots and cut into quarter inch rounds. Peel the kohlrabi, split it and dice it.

Blanch the kohlrabi and carrots for three minutes, add the peas for a further minute and a half, until just tender; drain and refresh under cold water.

Boil half a handful of orecchiette for 11 minutes.

Core and shred half a head of Savoy cabbage and wilt it in the same water; drain.

For the infusion, finely slice two radishes, two asparagus tips, two snow pea pods, two baby carrots and two morel mushrooms, and tie a bouquet garni of a thyme sprig, a rosemary sprig and two bay leaves.

Peel a couple of slices of truffle.

Put the beef consomme in a saucepan with the sliced vegetables, the bouquet garni and the truffle; bring to a boil, turn off the heat, cover and infuse a few minutes.

Season the beef fillet with sea salt and pepper on all sides. Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in a carbon steel pan and sear it all over.

Transfer to an oven preheated to 400F for four to six minutes, until it feels slightly springy - medium rare, about 130 to 135F, pulled at 125F.

Rest the fillet in a warm place, the bottom shelf of the turned-off oven, for a few minutes.

Reheat the blanched vegetable garnishes briefly in boiling water.

Saute extra morel mushrooms in the beef pan for about seven minutes; morels must not be eaten raw.

Squeeze the water out of the wilted cabbage in a towel and set a neat pile of hot cabbage in the centre of a warmed plate.

Trim a beef rectangle to a neat shape and lay it on the cabbage; pour a little consomme over to soften and warm it.

Slice the beef fillet thinly and lay the slices on top.

Arrange the kohlrabi, carrots, orecchiette, peas and sauteed morels around the plate with tweezers.

Pour the truffle and root vegetable infusion around the plate, and a little over the beef.