- 8
Ingredients
- Marinade:
- Filet: 1 whole tenderloin of beef with outer membrane and fat removed. Tie the loin into an even cylinder at one inch intervals
- 1/3 cup light olive oil
- 1/2 cup each sliced onions, carrots and celery
- 1/4 tsp each sage and thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 allspice berries or cloves
- 6 peppercorns
- 1 t salt
- 1 cup dry white vermouth
- 1/3 cup cognac
- 1 T cooking oil
- Mushroom Flavoring:
- 2 lbs. mushrooms
- 2 T butter
- 4 T minced shallots or scallions
- 1/2 c dry Madeira
- salt and pepper
- 4 to 5 T mousse de fois or fois gras
- Pastry:
- 3 c all purpose four
- 1 3/4 sticks chilled butter
- 2 t salt
- 3/4 c iced water
Preparation
Step 1
Marinade: 24 hours ahead of time
Place the olive oil in the saucepan and add the vegetables and herbs; cover the pan and cook slowly until vegetbles are tender- about 10 minutes. Place the tenderloin in casserole or baking dish, sprinkle with salt, cover with cooked vegtable mixture, and pour on the wine and cognac. Cover and refrigerate. Turn and baste the meat every several hours for at least 24 hours. Before preliminary baking scrape off the marinade and dry the meat in paper towels.
Preliminary baking:
preheat oven to 425. Rub the meat with oil and place in roasting pan. If you have saved the suet, place it over the beef to protect and baste it during roasting. Without suet you have to baste the meat with oil every 5 minutes during roasting. Set in upper thrid of oven and roast for 25 minutes, turning and basting the meat once with the fat in the pan. Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes or longer. If you are doing this ahead of time, wrap and refrigerate the meat when it is cold; bring to room temperature before final cooking.
Mushroom Flavoring:
TRim, wash and dry the mushrooms; chop them into small pieces less than 1/8 inch in size. You will have about 6 cups of mushrooms; so that they will cook dry, twist them, a handful at a time, in the corner of a toewl to extracts as much juice as possible. Save the juice for the sauce. Then saute' the mushrooms for 7 - 8 minutes in the butter with the shallots; when mushroom pieces begin to separate from eachother, add the Madiera and boil repidly until the liquid has evaporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper; and beat in the foie gras. Refrigerate in a covered bowl, beat to soften just before using.
The pastry:
Belnd together all the ingredients listed and chill for 2 hours before using. So the the crust will be crispt when served, it is done in 2 parts: a cooked bottom case to hold the beef, and a flaky dough topping.
Bottom pastry case: Butter the outside of a loaf shaped tin ( 12 x 3 x 3). Roll about 3/5 of the chilled pastry into a rectangle 16 x 7 inches and 1/8 inch thick. Lay pastry on upside down tin, press in place and trim so pastry forms a case 1.5 inches deep. With the tines of a table fork, prick side and bottom of dough at 1/4 inch intervals to keep it from pffing in the oven and then chill 30 min. to relax the dough. Bake until very lightly browned in the midlle level of a preheated 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes. let cool 10 minutes on tin then unmold. Case may be refrigerated or frozen.
Pastry Topping: Roll remaining dough into a 16 x 7 inch rectangle, psread bottom 1/2 with 1.5 T cold soft butter and fold in half to encloser butter. repeat with another 1.5 T butter. Roll again and fold into thirds as though folding a business letter. This is now mock puff pastry with layers of butter between layers of dough; it will be light and flasky when baked. Chill for 2 hours then roll into a 16 x 10 rectabgle. Cut a 3 inch strip from the long end and reserve for decorations; lay large rectangle flat on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper; cover with waxed paper and a damp towel, refrigerate.
Decorations: cut strips, circles, diamonds, etc. from the 3 inch strip and chill with pastry topping.
Assembly and Baking:
The beef takes about 45 minutes to bake, and should rest for 20 minutes before carving and serving. It is assembled just before baking.
Assembling: Place the baked pastry case on a baking and serving platter or a buttered baking sheets and spread half of the mushroom mixture in the bottom of the case. REmove the trussing strings and set the beef in the case, covering the meat with the remaining mushrooms. Paint the sides of the case with egg glaze( 1 egg beaten with 1/2 t water), lay patry topping over the meat allowing edges to fall down about 1 inch on the sides of the case; press decorations, and paint again with glaze. make cross hatch markings over the glaze with aknife, to give texture to the glaze when baked. make three 1/8 inch vent holes centered about 3 inches apart in top of the pastry and insert paper or foil funnels for escaping steam. PLung a meat thermometer through central hole and into center of meat.
Baking: Bake for 20-25 minutes in middle level of a pre heated 425 degree oven or until pastry has started to brown. Then lower oven to 375 degrees and bake 20 to 25 minutes more or to a thermometer reading of 137 for rare. Let rest at a temp of not more than 120 degrees for at least 20 minutes before serving so that juices will retreat back into meat tissues.
Serving: carve as though cutting a sausage into 1.5 inch slices. PAstry will crumble slightlyas you carve the beef.
Sauce Suggestions:
Sauce madere: simmer marinade ingredients and mushroom juices with 2 cups beef bullion and 1 T tomato paste for 1 hour, when reduced to 2 cups, strain, degrease, season, and ticken with 2 T cornstarch and 1/4 c Madeira.