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Porcini-Crusted Beef Tenderloin Steaks
Matthew Granger
[donotprint]STRATEGY SESSION: My strategies here are very simple. I reduce the fat by starting with a lean cut of beef and then removing all visible fat. Then I use a small quantity of olive oil instead of the usual butter to cook the steaks. The low-GI mushrooms contribute very little to the glycemic load.
Today we’re having Show and Tell, and I’ve brought Trufflehead. Here’s how it works:
Let’s say we’re in the grocery store and we're shopping for a special occasion dinner. We whip out our phone and open Trufflehead. We tap “Dinner” on the home page and start scrolling through the recipes. “Porcini-Crusted Beef Tenderloin Steaks” sounds promising. The photo draws us in and we tap “View Recipe”. Up close, we like the look of it and we tap “Ingredients” to see what we’re up against. We notice “porcini mushrooms” and “shallots” on the list. We don’t have a clue, but we tap the words in the list and up pop images accompanied by selection and storage info.
Now we know what to look for and where to find them in the store.
When we get home, we unpack our haul and open Trufflehead again. “Visible fat removed” follows the meat in the ingredients list. We’re relieved to see a video icon next to this instruction and we hit that. Ah, now we see what we’re supposed to do. Working our way down, we come to the shallots. We’ve never bought shallots before, let alone minced them, but we watch the video and now we’re cool with the mincing. We watch the videos on cleaning and grinding the mushrooms, coating the steaks, and cooking the tenderloins to medium-rare perfection. We serve them with Roasted Garlic Green Beans (there’s a video for trimming them), a nice salad, a crusty whole grain bread, and a big red wine. We did it!
Serving suggestions: I serve this with Trufflehead's Escarole with Garlic and Hot Pepper, but virtually any green vegetable would be fine. Potatoes Anna would be pretty good too, but we're not going there...[/donotprint]
Porcini-Crusted Beef Tenderloin Steaks
- 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
- 4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, 1 inch thick, visible fat removed VIDEO
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 shallots, minced (2 tablespoons) VIDEO
- ½ cup low-sodium beef broth
- ½ cup dry red wine
- Brush the mushrooms to remove any grit. Place in a blender. Cover and process to the consistency of coarse crumbs. Set aside 1 tablespoon. Transfer the remainder to a shallow bowl. VIDEO
- Season tenderloins generously with salt and pepper. Gently press meat into the porcini crumbs to coat top, bottom, and all sides. VIDEO
- DISCARD UNUSED CRUMBS.
- Place a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the oil. When hot, add the beef. Cook top and bottom 4 minutes each, reducing heat if necessary to prevent scorching. Then place tenderloins on their sides and cook, turning to brown perimeter, 4 minutes total for medium-rare meat, or longer to desired doneness. (Cooking time depends on thickness.) Transfer to a platter. (To sear entire perimeter, you may have to use tongs to press some areas to skillet as you turn.) VIDEO
- Add shallots to the skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes, until soft. Add broth, wine, and reserved 1 tablespoon porcini crumbs along with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring constantly, until syrupy. Spoon a little sauce onto each of 4 plates and top with the beef. Serve immediately.
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deana@lostpastremembered
You know, I made a recipe like this last year… but I stupidly put in the salt they asked for without thinking and it was awful… so salty. This is the recipe I should have used. It’s light and so delicious… talk about umami! People forget how reduced stock is rich, flavorful and not loaded with calories (or salt!!!).
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