Oh, what a luxurious French Fridays with Dorie! Red meat! Brandy! Cream! And all on a Thursday night too.
First things first, I was actually going to look for a cheaper cut of meat to use for this seeing that it was going to be a Thursday night meal and all that, but I happened to find filet mignon at Trader Joe’s (grass/vegetarian fed) for only $10. It was a small package of two 5 oz steaks and it was just perfect! So, filet mignon it was. Happy Thursday!
Here’s a link to everyone’s awesome and meaty posts!
Notes/Things I learned:
1. mmmmmm…red meat!
2. I only had tellicherry peppercorns, but they were excellent here. I put them in a plastic bag and bashed them with a meat tenderizer.
3. Three minutes on side one and four minutes on side two over high heat yielded lovely, slightly-on-the-rare-side, medium rare.
4. I chickened out with the flambe-ing. Just boiled the brandy. Maybe next time?
5. On the side we had sauteed broccolini and baked rosemary pommes frites (recipe below). Delicious meal!
6. The cream sauce, when it came into contact with some of the rosemary from my pommes frites, was AMAZING! Wow, adding rosemary to the sauce next time.
7. When I finally get my pricey, often dreamed-of DSLR camera (Canon Rebel!), I think I will continue to use my point-and-shoot for splattery, cooking meat photos.
Okay speaking of, on with the photos!
Peppercorns bashed, ready for the steak.
Filet crusted with pepper, waiting…
Filet mignon cooking away, side two.
Resting.
Brandy in the pan, not brave enough to flambe.
Cream added.
On the plate with Baked Rosemary Pommes Frites and sauteed broccolini.
***
These were amazingly good. Go make some now!
Baked Pommes Frites
Recipe adapted from Michael Chiarello
2 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed well
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
I did not peel my potatoes, but you can. Cut potatoes lengthwise into quarter-inch thick slices. Cut again into 1/4-inch thick fries. Place the potatoes into a bowl with cold water; Michale C. says this will help keep the fries crisp. Dorie seems to disagree in AMFT…confused! Anyway, just before cooking, drain water and place on paper towel, pat dry.
Put the potatoes in a bowl; add olive oil, some salt, black pepper and garlic powder. Toss well and lay out in 1 layer on nonstick baking sheet. I lined my baking sheet with foil and gave it a healthy coating of non-stick spray before laying the potatoes out on it.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn frites over. Sprinkle with half the rosemary. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees F and return the frites to the oven. Bake 10-15 more minutes until golden and crispy looking.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining rosemary and a bit more salt and allow to cool for 1 or 2 minutes and serve.
Your process photos are great and your meal looks so delicious. Enjoyed your post and thanks for the tips. I’ll be visiting Trader Joe’s to find your good deal. Thanks for sharing.
I love Trader Joe’s! Your steaks look yummy and I want to try your recipe for frites.
Your photos look amazing. They have me drooling! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I’ve added yours to my Google Reader and look forward to reading your future posts.
This is my first week of FFwD and I am so exited to meet everyone! Your dish looks fabulous – we loved it, too! Looking forward to getting to know you and everyone else!
I live for your step by step photos, and those rosemary baked frites look gorgeous! I just might try that ;-).
YUM! Your steak looks delicious! I can’t believe that deal you got on the filets either – crazy!
(dashing off to Trader Joes…..)
🙂
Great job!
gotta love trader joe’s! nicely executed!
Canon Rebel EOS is the bomb! You should get one. I love mine.
Oh, why can’t I have a Trader Joe’s closer than 200 miles 🙁
That dinner looks awesome and I think everyone deserves a mid-week splurge once in a while!
I miss Trader Joe’s from when my husband was posted for a special work assignment in NJ. This was a pretty awesome meal for a Thursday! The ‘Red Meat… Grrrr’ tag made me laugh out loud.
Your photos are amazing. Looks like you had an amazing Thursday indeed. And so neat to know that Trader Joe’s had such a good deal on filet mignon…wish I thought of stopping there. Think I will take Nana on a road trip to our local one- it is half an hour away but worth the trip. And you should treat yourself to any camera you want – your photos rock !!!
Your steak looks delicious. I’m going to try your baked frites. I love Michael Chiarello. One of the best meals of my life was at his restaurant Tra Vigne in the Napa Valley.
Wow, your steaks are just swimming in that luscious cognac cream sauce and do they look good;-) I think you put together one fine meal;-)
Thanks everyone! 🙂 And Trader Joe’s…who knew?! I was actually not expecting to find fillet there. I was just going to pick up whatever meat hunk I could find!
Betsy: When we were in Yountville a couple of years ago, we had to chose between Ad Hoc and Michael Chiarello’s restaurant there (Bottega, I think). We went to Ad Hoc, but I always wished we had another night to go to the other place too! 😉