Hey everybody, i'm fairly new to the whole wine dinner thing, and i'm looking to have one over the next week. I was wondering if anyone out there had any simple recipes for filet that even a novice such as myself could handle. I prefer to grill them if that helps at all. Thank you very much for the help.

P.S.
I'm also looking for decent appetizer suggestions if you have any of those.

Thank You

filet of what?

Filet mignon?

Brush with EVOO, sea salt, pepper...that's it

Go to a butcher and get a PRIME cut (don't go to your local supermarket, or Costco where they sell choice or less) around 1.5" thick.

Take it out of the fridge 30 mins before grilling. Lightly brush both sides with a combo... half evoo and half canaloa oil. Coat both sides with sea salt (kosher is also fine) and freshly ground black pepper. Preheat grill over on HIGH. Grill on 1 side for 2 mins, flip and grill for another 2 mins. Turn off burner directly under steaks, turn (not flip) 90 degrees... continue to cook until desired doneness.

Or, if you want criss-cross grill marks on both sides, after you turned it 90 degrees, cook it for 3 mins, then flip it and cook until done.

Have a spray bottle on hand for flare-ups.

It sounds like i should be able to handle that. Thank you very much for the advice.

quote:

Originally posted by mwagner7700:
Lightly brush both sides with a combo... half evoo and half canaloa oil. ..... Have a spray bottle on hand for flare-ups.

I'm curious about why a 50/50 oil combination. And I absolutely love your suggestion about those damned "flare-ups".

I was like tlilly. you want help, you better specify.

I'm doing fillets of mackerel tomorrow -have it cleaned and on on ice till then. Young onions, peas, potatoes, akvavit sauce. It will be very light and very pale.

quote:

Originally posted by WiseGuy:

quote:

Originally posted by mwagner7700:
Lightly brush both sides with a combo... half evoo and half canaloa oil. ..... Have a spray bottle on hand for flare-ups.

I'm curious about why a 50/50 oil combination. And I absolutely love your suggestion about those damned "flare-ups".

I used to use just EVOO until I took my "Chef for the Day" class (see related thread). The meat chef at The Ryland Inn uses a combo. He said straight EVOO gives the steak a slight grassy taste. He uses the mix because it there is almost no noticable grassy taste, and you get a faint hint of sweet canola oil. We tried it on Sunday night when I made 28-day dry aged porterhouses. They came out fantastic... probably the best steak I've ever cooked, so I'm attributing it to that, and am an instant convert.

Regarding the "spray bottle". I went to Home Depot, and in the cleaning aisle, I got the HD spray bottle... I think it was around $1.99. I washed it, filled it up with water, and it stays outside beneath my grill (I have a grill cover). In the winter, I'll bring it in. It's priceless when that oil drips onto the Flavorizer bars!!!

Ok, here is s imple one we use at our place. Just replicate the recipe by the number of steaks you buy.

Two inch thick filet mignon
sea salt
virgin olive oil
butter
garlic - finely sliced
a good frying pan - preferably cast iron
good white wine - not that cooking wine crap. If you are going to cook with it make sure it is good wine.
Good red wine - see above rules

heat pan and pre-heat broiler until it hits at least 500 degrees
slice garlic til it is paper thin
place it and oil in bottom of pan and fry 'til golden brown

While this is heating prep steak by rubbing sea salt and olive oil on the steaks

Now, here is the key to it all. Cut a small hole into each steak, preferably the size of a dime and go down almost to the bottom of each. do this for each steak and set this meat aside for later use.

Now that the pan is nice and hot place the steak in the pan for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Throw a pat of butter on top of each steak before place in broiler. Toss in some white wine near the end of the 7 minutes.

Take pan and all and place it in broiler for no more than 2 minutes. Your steak should be perfect at this point. Take all meat out and wrap it in tin foil. Let it stand for about 5 minutes - it is still cooking at this point so don't worry - the foil will retain the heat.

Get that meat you put aside and put it back into the same pan you just took the steaks from. Heat that pan up nice and hot and then toss in some red wine so that you are now making a reducition using the meat and drippings from the steak. Stir it but DO NOT make it boil. Just get it real hot until it is close to but not boiling.

Remove the steaks from the foil and place on your serving dish. Arrange nicely and slowly pour the juice misture you just made all over the steaks. Serve with a pinch of parsley and maybe some sprouts

As for the wine - you better go big for this one. A Barolo, Super Tuscan, Chilean Red, Malbec, Bordeaux or Cab or course.

You then come back here afterwards and let us all know how it turned out.

Hope it works out.

I won't "pass judgement" on this method as I've never used it. But why would you cut a hole in a piece of meat? You'll let all the precious juices flow right out.

Personally, I think simpler is better. If you buy a good piece of meat, why dress it up with butter, garlic, red and white wine?

to each his/her own

I've been doing this for about 10 years and it is absolutely a winnner.

Hey, when you buy a nice house you paint it and put new siding on it. You eat Hagan Daz and put chocolate sauce....


same thing

quote:

Originally posted by mwagner7700:
If you buy a good piece of meat, why dress it up with butter, garlic, red and white wine?

A good piece of meat
Is fun to eat,
Bad piece of meat,
You eat...
I don't.

What does the hole have to do with being the key? Is it solely to make the sauce? Or does it do something to the meat?

Hank
One suggestion. Add grilled eggplant to your menu if drinking a cab. Steak and eggplant are great matches for a big Cali Cab.
Enjoy!
cabsandzins

Wow everybody thanks a lot for the suggestions. You guys are really helpful, and i'm defanitally going to add eggplant to the dish, i love it and didn't even think of including it.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mwagner7700:
What does the hole have to do with being the key? Is it solely to make the sauce? ?[/QUOTE


Thats what I wanna to know too. We have the key, the hole and the sauce. Something doesn't add up, how's meat better with all these?

tit is not hte hole per se, it is the meat that you take from the hole that is added to the wine to make the reduction. You don't need to make a hole, I do 'cause when it is plated you add shallots and place them in the removed area. You can just cut off apiece of meat and do the same thing without the hole

I never read anything about shallots in your original recipe.

Something smells fishy here...

I think he meant the sprouts.