Beef Fillet

Well, it is Christmas.  OK, it was.  But who needs an excuse to cook something as delicious as a neat little piece of beef?  Anyway, my best friend asked me how I'd cook a fillet so I was practically made to do this.

My second excuse is that it was sat there in the butcher's glass fronted display looking all lost and forlorn.  It was just begging to be picked and subjected to some heat treatment. In my defence I didn't get a big bit - that would have been simply greedy - even if you can eat it cold, in secret, with some mustard on it.

I'm a bit of a born again meat eater - as a youth I used to weep in butchers shops, or at least gag at the smell.  But now I love a trip to the meat counter.  It's partly to do with the quality of produce.  Australia has most excellent ingredients and the meat is just the start of it.  The other part is the flirty butchers. Lovely solid chaps in blood stained pinnies asking if I prefer rump or loin.  Just how does one answer with going ever so slightly pink and sniggering?  Must be my age you know.

Having dragged my meaty lump back to my lair I was in two minds about frying or baking it.  Settling for baking, because I find it hard to get consistent results when I fry it, I turned the oven up to really rather hot and let it get up to speed. 

I avoided cooking anything steak-like for years.  I either seemed to cremate it to a pallid greyness or leave it so blue that it was positively pulsating.  But I figured out that lots of people seem to be able to cook it and so could I.  Some reading up on the topic resulted in a plan that I've found works for me, pretty much every time. 

Firstly, I rub the meat in some dry spices.  Currently I'm favouring chinese five spice powder along with some coarse ground black pepper.  I read somewhere, or heard, or saw, or whatever, that if you salt meat before you cook it you draw out the juices and make your lovely cut all dry and horrid.  However, I just read/heard/saw that it doesn't make a blind bit of difference.  Anyhow, I've left it off for so long and it doesn't seem to affect the result negatively.  Sometimes I smear a bit of soy, or ketjup manis on it, but sometimes not.  Then I leave it until I'm ready to cook.

 
Heating a frying pan to seriously searing hot, I rub a smidgeon of oil into the beef and then quickly sear it on all sides.  Seared so that it's good and browned without leaving it to cook for too long.  Then I stick it in a small (or appropriate sized) roasting tray and put it into the equally dang hot oven. 

For this small piece I'm going to give it about 10 to 12 minutes.  For a bigger bit - say a kilo's worth - I'd give it about 15 to 20 mins.   Then I whip it out of the oven and sit it under a (hopefully) clean tea towel to rest for at least as long as I've cooked it.  You can leave it for hours and serve it tepid in a salad type affair if you like.  This way it will have nice crusty ends (for those who can't bear pink stuff) and then gently pink middle bits (for the more bloody minded).

 
As to gravy I've finally got to grips with just using whatever seeps out of the joint as it cooks and cools.  It's savoury, uncomplicated and unclaggy. 

The Loved One's not a huge potato man so I've opted for a some fettucini and a few sliced mushrooms cooked quickly in butter.  The beef, cut into nice thick slices gets cheerfully polished off with bang bang sauce*.  All in all a rather nice way to farewell Christmas and prepare for the New Year.

 

*bang bang sauce? During one of my low fat/high fibre moments I took to mixing a teaspoon of finely grated parmesan with a tablespoon of skinny yoghurt to use as a dressing.  Turned out, it was savoury yum and to my mind just that much better for you than mayonnaise.  It's morphed, somewhat, over time.  This time round it was a tablespoon of thick full fat biodynamic bunny hugger yoghurt (it's actually got a cream top, like the milk used to get before they went and homogenised most of it), a teaspoon of mayo, a teaspoon of sour cream and a tablespoon of grated parmesan.  Not so low fat.  Tastes nice though. 

Comments

[the untidy cook]

Im afraid skool dinners put paid to any love I may have had for lamb.  But I am trying.  Ill cook a backstrap for TLO occasionally and even I have to admit that it doesnt taste too vile.

[pommiefoodie]

Prefer lamb myself...