Filet Mignon Poached in Red Wine with Potato-Mushroom Rosti

Hey everyone! Again, apologies for the little break.

Here is one we've been meaning to try for some time now. What scared me about this recipe was the rosti. I stink at making them.  It all goes back to the day I proposed to Laurie (so I blame her). Here's the story of the 'best rosti I've ever had'...

Laurie visited me on a business trip in London, and since it was around the time of her birthday, I surprised her (at Jamie Olivers 'Fifteen' restaurant) with train tickets to Paris for the weekend.

It was her first time in Europe to begin with. She was super excited that I surprised her with a weekend in Paris as her birthday gift. Little did she know I had a ring in my pocket to propose. We get to Paris and the plan was that on the next morning, we'd do the Eiffel tower, and I'd propose at the top. Cheesy, now that I think about it. However, as we get to the tower, we see the crazy long line/wait! Problem: I had booked a photographer to do a little photoshoot post popping the question, and there would be no way possible that I'd make it to the meeting spot on time if I waited in that line. Uh-oh. Palms sweaty, we walked around for a bit. The time was ticking. We were crossing over the Seine on the Pont Alexandre III bridge, which is beautiful, and I'm practically shaking. An American tourist couple, saw that we were American and asked if we could take their picture on the bridge. I said sure, no problem as long as you take ours! I took their picture and then handed them my camera, told them how to press the button and said something like 'you sure you got it? this one's going to be important' while they looked at this nervous guy all funny. Then I got down on one knee and popped the question.

 ...and there was some disbelief...

...then some...'are you crazy!!'

and then we were 'engaged'!

Don't worry I'm getting to the 'best rosti I've ever had' part. -- So. We then went to lunch at a recommended place, Le Coupe Chou. It wasn't a michelin starred place or anything like that, but a good friend recommended it and it turned out to be perfect. Solid french food, in a quiet, nice, romantic atmosphere. I orded the duck, her the beef. It had been the first time I had been served tourneed carrots (albeit poorly)...I knew I was in Paris!

The side was a potato rosti...which I do not have a picture of, BUT, it was 'the best potato rosti I've ever had!'.

I came home and immediately tried to replicate this dish without success. Here is a link to cheftalk.com regarding my trials and tribulations with a bunch of pictures and an eventual partial success....I won't scare you, but this was my first attempt in 2008.

yeaaah....SO,  needless to say I was nervous about getting this one. The filet poaching, no problem. The recipe is pretty straight-forward. The filet is simply poached in wine with some spices. For the rosti - first you cook some carrots, mushrooms, and shallot, with a few other spices and some sherry. Then, you use that mixture in the potato rosti...hence Potato-Mushroom Rosti

Here are some pictures prepping rosti...

Look at that brunoise. Perfect.

I don't recommend this OXO mandoline. It has a horizontal cutting blade that isn't very good. My next one will be a slanted blade commercial grade. When I need to mandoline sometime, I usually use my cheap 5$ mandoline and it does a better job, but doesn't have the fine julienne blade. 

Then I prepped the filets. This was the easy part.

Now, the fun begins. I have to actually make the rosti! We purchased this new HD handheld video camera to use while trail running and I figured video would be better than photos for this one! So, here are a series of 3 videos that walk you through our process.

As 'not good' as that last video looked (Laurie, glass half empty)...due to use having some sticking problems...this was actually the best potato rosti I've ever made. It turned out in the end to be really good! Here is a photo.

And here is a final shot...to match the book.

Thoughts: Great dish! Easy recipe. I'll definitely make it again, and aside from the rosti this is an easy one to make for guests. While I do get the poaching of the filet, you still can't beat a sear on a piece of meat, and I missed that a little bit in this dish. I kept thinking...'should I sear it off first?' but then it would poach too fast and not get enough wine flavor, etc...so I just stuck to the recipe. One thing the recipe called for that I didn't mention up above was the veal sauce from the back of the cookbook. I didn't have any stock on hand, so just simple used a little bit of the poaching liquid as a sauce and it worked out great. The wine we used to poach was a 2006 Falernia Syrah from Chili.

The wine we drank was an Australian Shiraz called Mothers Milk. Lately we've been into these whacky-named Australian Shiraz's. The Molly Dookers and the like. They are reasonably priced and some of them are really really good, however, the gamble is some are really really bad. This one happens to be great and at 20$ a bottle, it's a steal. 

Until next time...I see maybe a Rib Roast in our future. I'm also due for a visit to the restaurant, I haven't been since we had a spectacular meal at the Chef's table in September for our anniversary, and I keep seeing amazing new dishes on the menu.

Onion Fettuccine

Here is a simple one we've been meaning to try for some time now. We we're making the red-wine poached filet mignon (next post), and wanted this on the side.

Onion + heavy creme + pot + heat, then, S&P + Chives = Wow. So simple, but a very elegant, flavorful side dish!

Believe it or not, Whole Foods didn't have chives! So, I used some green onions...worked out just fine.

Apologies for the poor presentation on this one.

Thoughts: This is one of the best recipes in the book. It's simple, different, and tastes great. It will be my go-to staple side dish for dinner guests!

Vanilla (nutmeg) Creme Brulee

Wow -- it's been a while. For those wondering what we've been up to, it's not too exciting. Our other hobby is running, in particular trail/ultra-distance running, and that has signficantly been cutting into our cooking time! Let's just say that a box of pasta + whatever else is laying around tastes the best after a 10hr work day, followed by a long run. Not because it tastes good (anything tastes good after that), but because it's quick! (Boy, I'm starting to sound like Rachel R...I can't even finish her last name without wincing)

Nevertheless - We've still been cooking from the cookbook often, however many are 'favorite' repeats. We make the Osso Bucco often as well as the Pumpkin Agnolotti quite often.

We had some guests coming over for dinner, and Laurie wanted to make a simple dessert and be able to make it ahead of time. We choose the Vanilla Creme Brulee recipe, but wanted to make the 'nutmeg' variation on it. It's crazy, but in all the cooking we do, we've both have never made a creme brulee! That's sad!

The recipe, is simple, egg yolks, cream, sugar, nutmeg......

 ..in a water bath...

cover...bake....chill...dust...torch.... serve. 

...only ours 'flopped'. We're not sure what happened, but they tasted really eggy and almost looked 'broken'. Perhaps I put too much water in the dish, and some splashed in the ramekins, we're not sure. We ended up making profiteroles instead. (our go-to dessert)  

I'm determined to give this one another try though...I'm quite sure it was user error...and...just because I get to get my torch out of the garage. 

One to match the book: 

 Thoughts: I need to give this one another try.

Heirloom Tomato Salad with Watermelon Water

First off, my buddy Alex and his wife went to Nicholas and did the Chef's table last week for their anniversary, here is their writeup! We too will celebrate our 1st anniversary the same way next month. We figure it's the only thing that's going to top our month long honeymoon in Italy. They are also going to Alinea in Chicago next month for Alex's birthday!

Here's a quick one that fits this time of year perfect. Especially if you have a bunch of tomatoes from your tomato plants and don't know what to do with 'em! Even better if you have some basil growing. Luckily we have both. The dish is composed of tomatoes, grapes, balsamic reduction, watermelon 'water', and basil oil.

The hardest part is the basil oil. It takes ~2 days to make. It's made by combining grapeseed oil (I'm guessing because it's more neutral in flavor than olive oil) with basil and then letting it steep overnight, then strain overnight. Here are some pictures of the process. My blender broke (I KNEW I should have bought a waring, blend tec, or vitamix!) so I had to use my stick blender attachment to blend the basil.

I didn't have a coffee filter...so I improvised with a paper towel!

I then got the family together for a group photo...Balsamic Reduction is the black sheep of this entourage so he was left out of the picture. 

Here he is...

While the balsamic was reducing, I made the watermelon water. The book calls for using a juicer, but I don't have one. Also, as I mentioned above, my blender is broke. So, I improvised again....and used.... a bowl and a fork! Sure, I probably could have gotten 'more' juice with a juicer, but this made enough juice for at least 4 salads.

Another family portrait!

Then, you basically toss the grapes & tomatoes with the basil oil and some salt, make a ring with the balsamic reduction, pile everything in the center, and spoon over some watermelon water.

One to match the book!

Thoughts: Aside from the basil oil, this dish was really simple, but the flavors balanced out really well! Laurie thought the balsamic would overpower something but everything blended really well, the way a salad should be. I have to say, even though the basil oil takes 2 days (albeit 5 minutes work each of those days) it is pretty awesome stuff. I can think of about 10 different dishes I want to use it in. If you're pressed for time, I'm sure substituting some fresh chiffonaded basil would be ok...but you 'should' try to make the oil, it's worth it!  I think this is a really elegant summer dish that would be perfect for a 'little better than just a BBQ' outdoor dinner party. The one recommendation in the recipe is to be sure your ingredients are fresh and good...I couldn't agree more, this dish would epic fail say...in the winter, despite the availability of tomatoes and watermelon from third world countries....

P.S. we weren't as elegant this evening, and paired this dish...with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner...