I was originally planning on a Victorian meal and had gone quite out of my way to find duck (originally planned on a goose but when I saw how *large* they all were I realized they would be too much for my small family and settled on a nice sized duck instead. Of course, I had no idea how many surprise guests we’d have that night. The rest of the planned meal was :
- a plum brandy sauce with chestnut (in a weak attempt to recreate a magical meal I once had in Munich)
- roast potatos covered in herbs provincial,
- roasted veg; in this case some really nice fresh brussel sprouts that I was a bit proud I managed to find on short order
- and just because they had them, some fresh portabello caps that I planned on marinating then grilling or broiling. (Not that teriyaki portobello is the least bit Victorian)
After returning from shopping, imagine my surpirse to learn that my Mother had actually bought our house and my sister’s house each a complete beef tenderloin, so filet mignon it was. It required a quick change of plans, and means that I still have a duck sitting in my fridge (for New Year’s, I suppose, or for our upcoming night’s stay at Niles and Chia Pah’s in Voorhess). My god, two nights of all you can eat filet, and we even had to give some leftovers to guests.
The complete meal was:
A giant, beautiful tenderloin. My brother-in-law had marinated it in a blend of worcestshire, rosemary, and a few other things (perhaps mustard? ) and seared it on the grill. I then roasted it for about an hour longer at 450, and it came out perfect: medium rare on one end, medium well at the very tip of the other end, and medium through out most. For those who wanted theirs beyond medium well I finished it in a pan with butter. Personally for really good cuts where the meat is the centerpiece I prefer to only lightly salt and pepper and let the meat speak for itself, and I found the worcestshire a bit strong. I always prefer my steaks at least medium-well however (yes, I know, and yes that’s even for a rib roast) so by the time I finished it au beurre it came out exactly how I like it. The accompanying sauces further enhanced the meal.
Sauces:
Originally I was planning on a chestnut-prune-brandy combination for the duck, but for the beef I had to switch up a little at the last minute. Unbeknownst to me, my wife had also bought several pounds of very nice, white plump mushrooms, so first order was to get those guys into a sauce:
- Saute the mushrooms with a hint of garlic over butter at just medium heat to draw out all the juices and reduce the mushrooms in size.
- seasoning: I forget exactly what I used, likely a bit of black pepper and salt
- a combination of red cooking wine (couldn’t find the sherry) and stock
- thicken with cornstarch or, in our case, some white flour, and simmer until reduced. Delightful way to serve mushrooms, and they went very quickly.
My wife’s horseradish sauce. This one was trickier because the first store I stopped at (Giant) really didn’t have any very good horseradish. In fact, the produce and general ingredients of the store as a whole seem to be rapidly declining; they apparently sell lots of food-like substances, but not a lot of actual food anymore. They had only Gold’s, which is fine, but Gold’s is from New York and we prefer Kelchner’s which is only a few miles from Lisa’s famiy farm. They had some red (beet) radish that goes great with gefilte, but we wanted straight up Kelchner’s. We settled on Gold’s Hot instead 
I wish I had saved the horseradish for my second grocery trip (to Safeway, which seems to sell more actual food) but the sauce came out fine anyhow.
- I don’t know the actual recipe. It’s one of Lisa’s family recipes, and I prefer straight horseradish over a sauce, so I never bothered learning it.
- it involves cream cheese (think old farm an hour outside of Philadelphia, so of course it involves cream cheese and local horseradish!)
- She does some other stuff with it, and I’d swear that at one point she was hitting it with the egg beaters.
- It’s great with any good piece of beef.
So we had the mushrooms, and the horseradish sauce. Mmmm. Veg was roast potatos, seasoned with :
- parsley
- rosemary
- dill
- marjoram
- orgeano
- basil
- crushed red pepper, i should have only used the flakes, but i used pepper I had crushed a long time ago that included the seeds (but hey, no stems
so in went the seeds.
- salt
- black pepper
- and probably some other ingredients I forgot already.
they were *awesome*. that unlikely, ungainly list of herbs actually came together great.
We also had green beans steams with spaetzle, again not Victorian (it’s actually of German descent) but quite good.
Bread: unfortunately I had trouble finding a good breat at the last minute, and once again I may have to start trying other stores than my local Giant, as they had only a soft, thin crusted bread left (by Nature’s Promise) that had an unappealing inside. Of course they had other breads, like semolina’s, and cheese-topped breads but none of those were suitable. The bread was uninspired and frankly I wish they hadn’t decided to stop baking their own. According to an auction notice I found online, it appears they Giant has decided to stop making alot of their own foods, including ice cream. So strike three for giant: no fresh brussel sprouts, poor horseradish choices, and no breads. They did, however, had a run on chicken stock (can’t beat a buck a can !) so I stocked up on stock.
All in all the meal was *excellent* … the horseradish my wife made, and my mushrooms were both exceptional and we basically went crazy on the filet as we continued digging in and diggin into it. What a great piece of beef, and honestly considering it stuff 4 adults and two kids for two nights *plus* had leftovers to pack home with a guest, it’s really not a bad deal.
Thanks Mom, a great gift indeed.
