Saturday, November 21, 2009

Beef Fillet with Gorgonzola Sauce

Tonight is the UFC 106 mixed martial arts fights so I wanted to do a "black and bleu" steak for the family and 2 friends over to watch the fights. For the record, my picks are

Griffin over Ortiz
Johnson over Koscheck
Thiago over Volkman (sp?)
Nogueria over Cane

I based the beef dish on this post form the Adventures in The Kitchen food blog. But instead of doing a tenderloin roast, I trimmed the beef tenderloin into a roast and 6 fillets. I seasoned them with my cajun beef rub and then made the gorgonzola sauce.

Gorgonzola Sauce
Ingredients

4 cups heavy cream

3 to 4 ounces crumbly Gorgonzola (not creamy or “dolce”)
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Bring the heavy cream to a full boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, then continue to boil rapidly for 45 to 50 minutes, until thickened like a white sauce, stirring occasionally.
Off the heat, add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and parsley. Whisk rapidly until the cheeses melt and serve warm.
I grilled the fillets at 600f on the Big Green Egg.
grilled filet mignon, Big Green Egg beef filet, kamado beef filet mignon
Nice sear marks right? I have a trick (but not a cast iron grate). I use a cheap cast iron griddle plate that I got from Lowes on the Egg for the first 2 minutes. I turn the steaks 90 degrees after one minute.
grilled filet mignon, Big Green Egg beef filet, kamado beef filet mignon
Then I take the griddle out and finish cooking for another 4 minutes flipping them for a total cooking time of 6 minutes (1 minute side A, 1 minute side A turned, 2 minutes side B, 2 minutes side A, remove and rest).

TIP: The cast iron griddle plate will be hot enough to burn right through oven mitts in just seconds, so remove the plate with long handled pliers.

I topped the fillets with some more crumbled gorgonzola cheese and then gorgonzola sauce. (Excuse the picture, I forgot to switch from the custom white balance I was using out side. Plus I was hungry, dammit.)
grilled filet mignon, Big Green Egg beef filet, kamado beef filet mignon, gorgonzola beef tenderloin, gorgonzola filet mignon
The steaks came out as perfect fillets, seared on the outside and barely medium rare on the inside.

Fillet should never be cooked past medium. If you like yours medium well or more done, get a different cut of steak, like sirloin or burn a ribeye. But don't do that to a fillet :)

We served them up with baked potatoes, spinach maria, and a salad.

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