Filet Mignon and Scalloped Potatoes

Up to this point my posts have revolved around experiences that I have had, and the food that I encountered during those experiences. Today will be my first post that focuses on something that I have made rather than something that I have been served. I am going to mix in posts about what I cook, and what I enjoy to make. I will start with the dish shown above, one of my go to dishes. It is a steak dish, filet mignon with a three mushroom red wine sauce to be exact. I serve it with scalloped potatoes, asparagus, and an olive ciabatta bread.

Lets start off with the scalloped potatoes because they can be done in steps and also take the longest from start to finish. I started with this recipe I found on epicurious. I am not a fan of yams or sweet potatoes --at least not enough to cook them on my own-- so that was the first thing I changed. I make them with 3 pounds of yukon golds, and no yams. I also like cheese, so I added a second cheese to the list, and some more cream and butter. I only added those because I like to reduce my sauces a little longer than normal so I need a higher volume to start with. So here is what the shopping list looks like when I make them:

3 pounds medium Yukon Gold potatoes
4 cups heavy whipping cream
1 - 1/3 stick of butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6-8 ounces coarsely grated Gruyre cheese
6-8 ounces coarsely grated pecorino romano

The Picture From Epicurious

I wont bore you with step by step details, as you can find those by following the epicurious link above. I will highlight some things that I changed, and some tips to make it go as smooth as possible. First of all, the potatoes need to be sliced really thin, and the more consistent and uniform you can make slices the better. This will really show when eating the dish because the slices will be cooked evenly, and each bite will have the same texture (no big less cooked chunks). For the best and easiest way to get these results I would suggest using a mandoline. There is no doubt that it will make your life easier, and the prep time will be reduced dramatically. If you can afford it I would suggest the Oxo Good Grips Mandoline Slicer, but the Progressive International HGT-11 Folding Mandoline Slicer works well too, and comes at a much lower price.

The Finished Product

Follow the other instructions well, and make sure that you are thorough when chopping the herbs. Having a good and very sharp knife will help, I use the Kyocera Revolution Series Paring and Santoku Knife Set, Black Blade. It is super sharp and since it has a ceramic blade you will never have to sharpen it. You will be amazed at the amount of flavor the dish takes from the herbs, it really makes it. The other deviation that I make is in the sauce. I normally double the ingredients that I buy, and let the sauce reduce over low heat for a little while before pouring it over the potatoes. This is not by any means the healthy way to go, but man does it ever taste good! The dish is a mixture of cream, cheese, butter, and herbs with the potatoes acting as the medium in which all of those deliciously sinister flavors are carried to your stomach. It is simple and straightforward, but extremely hearty and packed full of flavor. Do make sure that there is not too much liquid in the potatoes before pulling them out, as this will result in very tasty but runny potatoes. Be patient and let them set up for the best results

Now onto the mushrooms. These take the second longest due to the amount of chopping and the time that it takes to reduce so many mushrooms. You can prep the potatoes up until the point of baking and put it in the fridge while you prep this.

I based this recipe off of one that I found on the food network's website. Click on the link to see the full red wine and wild mushroom sauce recipe. I enjoy walking through the store and picking out a medley of which ever mushrooms look best. I prefer to make this when I am able to get a good amount of chantrelles. This is hard to do if they are not in season, as they will be hard to find, and really expensive.

Don't be put off by the mountain of mushrooms that you will have in your in your pan. It will take a while to sweat and reduced them, but it turns out to be well worth it. Like I mentioned with the potatoes I tend to let things reduce as much and as slowly as I can (if within reason). In this case I add a good amount of wine and let it reduce down, and repeat a couple of times (I do this because I didn't think the original recipe gave the mushrooms enough of the red wine flavor). I also add more cream, but not very much in this case. I just really like to get the wine flavor into the mushrooms, and use the cream to help with the thickness as the mushrooms approach getting ready. Be patient with these, and you will be rewarded.

The meat is the easy part. In the picture above I had made a sauce just for the steaks to cook in, and I have to say that was a waste of time in my opinion. Ever since then I won't bake a steak, I will either grill or pan sear them. For this meal I did the later. It makes for a quick and well done steak, and does not depend on summer weather for ideal cooking conditions.

I take the filets (or which ever cut you decide to go with) and lightly season them with salt and pepper, or any seasonings you like to use. Let the steaks sit and come up to room temp for about an hour before cooking. You should have the oven pre-heated to 500 and you will want to take a cast iron pan and place it in the oven while it comes to temp. You will also want to keep a baking sheet in the oven so you can transfer the steaks over after you sear them.

When the oven is heated take the pan out and immediately place the steaks in the pan. Let them cook undisturbed for about 2.5 to 3 minutes. Flip and repeat. This will give the steaks nice markings, and will help to lock in the juices. Then take the steaks and place them on the baking sheet that you have in the oven. Let them cook for 7 to 8 minutes for medium rare. This is the only way I will make steaks other than grilling. This is also the method that many restaurants use to prepare their steaks. I find that cooking the steak all the way through in the pan leaves a bad taste and dries the meat out. Like I mentioned earlier you can also bake the steak, but I think that takes too long and isn't as fun. Remember that you NEED to let your steaks rest for about ten minutes. They will taste better, and they will also continue to cook, so keep that in mind when you are judging if they are ready to be pulled from the oven.

For the green portion of my dish I went with asparagus. I love it, and its easy to cook. This was important because as you are finishing all of the dishes so that they are ready on time you will not want to have to babysit your veggies. For the asparagus I took some garlic and minced it, then I added butter and a little bit of oil to a pan. I let it come to temp and added the garlic and left it for a minute before adding the asparagus. I added the asparagus and threw a lid over it to get things going. After a couple of minutes I took the lid off and then let them cook to my liking. I usually like it so they still have a little snap to them, but I also want them to soften up a bit too.

During the last couple minutes I will throw what ever bread I picked for the night into the oven so that I can serve it warm. Almost as important as having the bread is having warm butter. I can't stand it when you are served bread and the butter is fresh out of the fridge, and hard as a rock. Its butter, not ice cream. This leaves you with three options, the first being not using butter. The second option in this scenario is to take way too much time to finesse the butter on the bread. The third option is to savagely attack the bread with the butter as to not waste anytime in which case your bread will look like it was buttered by a wolverine. So put the butter out for a half hour before you serve.

The result will be wonderful! If you enjoy cooking then this will be a treat. The process of turning all the ingredients into something so tasty for everyone to enjoy is the best feeling one can have (when cooking). The dish should look fairly simple, but should have a much more complex flavor. That flavor will act the only hint as to how much work and care you put into the dishes preperation. The fresh ingredients and the patience needed to make it just right will really shine through when people begin to take bite after bite. If you are like me you probably wont be hungry, and will settle for a little right away, so not to be rude.

The finished Product

I hope this will inspire someone to attempt this dish or a part of it. Please leave any questions and/or comments that you may have and I will respond as soon as I can. If you make this or any part please take a picture and post it to the comments!

In case the links above are not working here are the URL's to the recipes:

Potatoes: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Scalloped-Yukon-Gold-and-Sweet-Potato-Gratin-with-Fresh-Herbs-350455

Mushroom Sauce: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/red-wine-and-wild-mushroom-sauce-recipe/index.html