This adaption of
Joy of Cooking (p. 346) brown sauce is lovely over tenderloin, potatoes, and green beans. It can be reserved and adapted for lamb by adding rosemary. It sounds like a Bordelaise, but on steroids... :-) It helps if you have an herb garden. :-)
This quantity serves one person. Multiply linearly for more people.
Ingredients:
2 cloves Fresh garlic
½ cup Fresh parsley
6 leaves Fresh sage
(1 tbsp Fresh rosemary leaves—for lamb)
2 tbsp Fresh thyme leaves
1 cup Heavy red (Malbec, Sangre de Toro, Cabernet Sauvignon) wine
1 tbsp Beef Better than Bouillon (or two beef bouillon cubes, dissolved)
¼ Lemon
4 dash Maggi sauce
4 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp (4 pats) Butter
2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (
e.g., Colavita)
1 tbsp Black truffle olive oil (
e.g., Virgin and Aged)
⅓ lb Tenderloin filet
1 small (1½" diameter) red potato
½ cup "Exotic" mushrooms (
e.g., shiitake, oyster, portabella, baby bella)
~24 French (or hand selected regular) green beans
Tools:
Spatula
Double boiler
½ quart sauce pan
8" frying pan
Whisk
Time:
• Preparation ("sous-chef"):
This takes about an hour: 15 minutes to slice, dice, and combine; 45 minutes to simmer, reduce,
and combine, during which you prepare the remainder of the meal.
• Combining, cooking and presenting:
This takes about twenty minutes.
Sous-chef:
• The potato takes the longest time. Remove the eyes from the potato and put it to boil in a saucepan (I prefer bottled water). Bring the water to boil (four minutes) then reduce to a simmer. After ten minutes turn the potato over.
• The waterbased portion of the sauce is referred to as the "brown sauce":
+ Wash and dry the mushrooms and remove the stems
- Cut off the bottom of the stems
- Slice the mushroom caps (
e.g., ¼" slices) and reserve
+ Finely mince garlic, mushroom stems, parsley, sage, (rosemary for lamb), thyme. Combine in a saucepan with wine.
+ Dissolve the bouillon in the liquid. Squeeze the lemon juice in. Add the dashes of Maggi and Worchester sauces.
• Set to simmer on a very low (gas) heat with the top
on for ten minutes to combine flavors and then another 35 minutes with the top
off to reduce. Check at least every ten minutes to prevent burning.
• Meanwhile combine butter, olive, and truffle oil in the top of a double boiler and set to simmer on low heat while the brown sauce reduces satisfactorily.
• Prepare the rest of the meal while this simmering is going on:
+ Trim the tenderloin of any gristle
+ Trim the ends of the green beans
+ Heat the dinner plate (
e.g., heat for 30 seconds in a microwave) and remove the potato when almost done. It will finish softening on the warm plate.
Combining, cooking and presenting:
• Either wait until the reduction is to your satisfaction (
e.g., ⅛ cup or less) or until about five minutes before you think it will—if you're in a hurry— put the green beans on to steam on a low heat. Beans take about fifteen minutes to be tender but still crunchy.
• Five minutes after putting the beans on, start cooking the tenderloin in a small frying pan:
1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
Touch Truffle oil
+ Heat on high for about two minutes. Test with
small droplets of water. Put the tenderloin in when the droplets start to sizzle. Wait 15 seconds and turn over to sear the meat then reduce the gas to ¾ and cover the pan.
+ Continue to cook for about three minutes, then turn over for another four minutes for medium rare. It is medium rare when it has the firmness of your palm edge under your thumb.
• While this proceeds, squeeze the brown sauce into the top of the double boiler through a sieve and stir to combine with the butter and oil.
• As the meat nears readiness remove the beans from the steamer and put on plate. Remove the meat when done and put on the plate.
• Cook the mushrooms: Add a touch of water to the meat brownings in the frying pan and use a spatula to dissolve them (15 seconds). Return the heat to high and add the mushrooms. "Shuffle" the frying pan to keep the slices moving and not sticking, for about 30 seconds. As the liquid is absorbed pour the mushrooms over the tenderloin.
• Giving the sauce a final whisk, pour it over all the elements.
• Serve with a glass of aforesaid heavy red wine, candlelight, and friends.
Enjoy.
