Jeremiah & Fabian's Wagyu Fat Financier

RECIPE BY

Jeremiah Stone and Fábian von Hauske

Jeremiah Stone and Fábian von Hauske Valtierra own New York restaurants Contra and Wildair. “Fabian is Mexican, I am Chinese and we are also very influenced by Korean and Japanese cuisine,” says Jeremiah. “There's a lot of overlap with those food cultures and being in New York, there are so many cultures to latch onto so we can go down all these different roads. “Jeremiah does the wine, I am more into doing the visual elements,” says Fábian. “I do the pastry, he does the savoury. Sometimes we have different approaches - I think that’s been really important for us, that’s how we've been able to stay together for this long. We're able to take a lot of the ego out and work as a team.”

Our version of this small French almond cake replaces the traditional beurre noisette with rendered wagyu fat. It’s interesting how much flavour you can capture in the fat. It has all these roasted notes and so many different properties that you don’t get from eating the meat itself.

Serving a sweet pastry with caramelised onions and anchovies might sound a bit weird but it works. It’s sweet, nutty, salty, it’s all really roasty. With the caramelised onions and the saltiness from the fish, it turns it into something you could have at a cocktail party, maybe with a glass of Riesling or Gewurztraminer, something that has those high tones to work with the fat.

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Wagyu Fat

50g (1.7 oz) wagyu fat, from trim
2 egg whites
80g (2.8 oz) powdered sugar
30g (1.06 oz) almond flour
30g (1.06 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

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To Serve

3 onions, sliced and caramelised
8 Cantabrian or other high quality anchovy in oil

Render wagyu trim until you have 50g fat. Cool it down in the fridge overnight.
In a stand mixer, whip egg whites and sugar to soft peaks. Set aside.
Mix the almond flour with the all-purpose flour and vanilla extract.
Whisk in the rendered wagyu fat until smooth.
Fold in whipped whites.
Spoon or pipe the batter into small round moulds and bake at 180C / 350G for about 25 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack.
When ready to serve, halve cakes and sandwich with caramelised onions and anchovies.