Hayley Bruce, pictured above with her fellow participants during the Aberdeen-Angus Scotch Beef Award, has been kind enough to share with us her winning recipe which we were treated to at last year’s World Angus Forum Gala Dinner! If you’re looking to impress with a canapé made using the best Aberdeen-Angus beef then look no further than Hayley’s ‘Highland Gem’. The full recipe details are below – enjoy!

Ingredients For 6 Canapés

1 x Gem lettuce – Washed 

1 x Fillet Steak

2 x Carrots – Peeled

4 x Spring Onion – Washed

150g x Ricotta Cheese

1 x Lemon – zested

1 x Small bunch of curly parsley

1 x 10cm of fresh ginger – peeled and roughly chopped

1 x Small chilli – roughly chopped

1 x Bay leaf

250mls x White wine vinegar

100g x Caster sugar

Seasoning: Salt & white pepper

Method

Cut gem lettuce in half vertically, and then in half horizontally so they are in bite sized pieces.

In a small pan, add the vinegar, sugar, ginger, chilli and bay leaf, bring to the boil and reduce by 1/2. Turn off and leave to cool.

Julienne the carrots, slice spring onions at an angle. Place carrots in a bowl and pour the cooled pickle liquid over using a sieve. Put ricotta in a bowl, add lemon zest and the finely chopped parsley. Mix to combine and then season.

Add spring onions to the pickled carrots, then season. Place a frying pan on the stove, add 1tsp of oil and allow pan to get hot, meanwhile season the steak. Seal steak all around then place on a baking tray, and grill until medium/rare – 3-4 minutes. Allow steak to rest for 10 minutes.

Assemble canapés, cut fillet steak into bite sized pieces. Place on lettuce leaf, add pickled veg then add a quenelle of ricotta on top, garnish with a small curly parsley leaf.