Dinner Saturday Night

Well, the last posting had the start of my company dinner for Saturday night.  Here is the full menu and the final recipes.

Cheese Platter with Rosemary Cashews and Olives

Mushroom Consommé with Puff Pastry Leaves

Gourmet Today

Roast Tenderloin of Beef with Madeira Sauce

The Fearrington House Cookbook

Moroccan Couscous

Barefoot in Paris

Chocolate Ice Cream with Meringue Swirls

Martha Stewart Living Magazine

Today I started by setting the table and making sure all the platters, bowls and utensils were ready and set in place.  Then I started the tenderloin.

Ingredients:

1 beef tenderloin, 5.5-6#, trimmed of all fat

½ t salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 T Dijon mustard

4 oz bacon, diced, fried, and drained

5.5 oz mushrooms, sliced with stems removed

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3T peanut oil

1 C fresh OJ

1 C Madeira

½ C ruby port

¼ C brandy

1 C heavy cream

4 T butter, softened

Directions:

I made this meal in stages.  I made the sauce yesterday.  According to the recipe you can start the roast and finish to the point of after searing and just do the roasting later.  This is what I did and I am very happy I did.  This recipe was developed by Ben Barker who later had his own restaurant in NC.  The searing turns your stove top and the surrounding area into a huge mess.  Chefs never clean up their messes, so this would not even occur to them to warn you of how messy this phase is.  I recommend you cover all the remaining burners on your stove and the surrounding area with towels before searing or spend an hour cleaning the stove and the surrounding area as I did. 

1.      When you are ready to roast, or doing it all at one time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.      Make a 2” deep incision the length of the roast so that the meat opens land lies flat. 

3.      Salt and pepper the inside and spread with Dijon mustard. 

4.      Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp.  Remove to a paper plate.

5.      Sauté the mushrooms for 1 minute in the pan in which the bacon was cooked.

6.      Add garlic and the shallots and continue to cook for another minute.  Combine with the bacon and spread the mixture down the middle of the roast. 

7.      Roll the tenderloin to its original shape and tie it with butcher’s twine at 1” intervals. 

8.      Heat the peanut oil to the smoking point in a skillet large enough to accommodate the roast. 

9.      Cover the surrounding area with towels and add the roast to the pan and sear it on all sides until nicely browned. 

10.  Remove it and place it seam side up in a roasting pan with a rack.

11.  The roast may be prepared to this point earlier in the day and set aside, covered, at room temperature until ready to be finished.

12.  For the sauce, combine orange juice, Madeira, port and brandy in a saucepan and bring to a foil.  Simmer until reduced by half.  (Easy way to track this is to put a plastic ruler in the pot and notice the depth.  Cook down until it is half the initial measurement,)

13.  Add beef stock and reduce again by half.

14.  Add cream and reduce by half.  Set aside. 

15.  Put the roast in a 450 degree oven and reduce the temperature to 375.  Roast 15-18 minutes, for medium rare.  Remove the roast, tent with aluminum foil and let sit for 5 minutes.  (We used a temperature probe and it took our tenderloin much longer to get to medium rare.  I am glad we used the probe and advise all to do the same.)

16.  Bring the sauce to a boil and adjust seasoning.  Remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1T at a time. 

17.  Slice the beef in ½” slices and arrange on a platter.  Nap with the sauce. 

I liked the couscous the best.  I should have not been afraid of the quantity of salt she used.  It was definitely under salted. 

Ingredients: 

2 C (3/4”) diced butternut squash

2 C (3/4”) diced yellow onion

1 ½ C (3/4”) diced carrots (4-5)

1 ½ C (3/4”) diced zucchini (2 medium)

2T EVOO (Sciabica’s Manzaanillo, Fall, unfiltered, is now on the market.  I ordered mine.  Go to jon@sciabica.com  for great EVOO)

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ C chicken stock (I have had a discussion with Publix about them filling the aisle with College Inn instead of Wolfgang Puck or Emeril’s stock.  College Inn is just salt and yellow coloring.)

2T unsalted butter

¼ t ground cumin

½ t saffron threads

1 ½ C couscous (10 oz) (I used whole wheat couscous)

2 scallions, white and green parts, chopped

Directions:

1.      Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2.      Place the squash, onions, carrots and zucchini on a baking sheet and toss with EVOO, 2 t salt and 1 t pepper. 

3.      Roast for 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a spatula.

4.      Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil and turn off the heat.  Add the butter, 1 t salt and ½ t pepper, the cumin and saffron threads and allow to steep for at least 15 minutes.

5.      Bring the chicken stock just back to a boil.  Place the couscous and cooked vegetables in  a large bowl and pour the hot chicken stock over them. 

6.      Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.    

7.      Add scallions, toss the couscous and vegetables with a fork, and serve warm or at room temperature.  (I made earlier and warmed in the microwave as the roast was in the oven.)

Once again this was a meal with Jim talking about wine.  Just once I’d love to be able to discuss something at the table other than wine.  Jim put 3 very nice wines on his Wine Saver Pro Home for each to choose their wine with the cheese course.  They were Gainey Vineyard, Syrah (Santa Rita, CA), Toluca Lane, Pinot Noir (Oregon), and Opola Vineyards, Zinfandel (Paso Robles).  With the soup course we had a wine I bought at the Market Basket in Lebanon.  It was a Ferrari-Carano, Chardonnay.  With the beef we had a 1996 Chateau Pavie Macquin Saint  Emilion.  One can never complain about the wine, I just wish it was not the focus of conversation.

Dinner was ok, nothing to write home about.  Martha’s Meringue Swirls were a sticky mess, but they did taste good.  I thought the soup was boring and I remain not a fan of beef.  Give me a great roast chicken any day.