Memphis Food Guy Blog: bernaise

Fellow Foodies,

Tonight's dinner is an all star favorite. Beef Filet covered with Bearnaise Sauce and served with a side of sauteed mushrooms.

I know that beef filet tenderloin is an expensive meat, however what I do to reduce my cost is to purchase an entire beef tenderloin at Costco and then trim it myself. I put it in individual freezer bags and freeze. So, today I took out a couple of filets which took about 2 hrs to defrost.

I used a mixture of virgin olive oil and Dales marinade to coat the filets, and some granulated garlic powder to gently dust.

Tonight I chose to pan saute in butter in a hot skillet. Takes about 3 minutes a side to come out medium rare which is the preferred serving suggestion.

Medium Rare - Beef Filets

Prior to cooking the filets, I pan sauteed sliced mushrooms. The way I do mushrooms has always proven to be a wonderful accompaniment to any meat.

Sauteed Mushrooms

In a saute pan or non stick skillet I add 1/2 stick of butter and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. Its important to use real garlic and not garlic salt or powder. After the butter and garlic has come to a simmer, I add the sliced mushrooms ( you can use 1 or 2 pints of sliced mushrooms for this recipe as the mushrooms will cook down.) The mushrooms will release any liquid so it's important to cook down. I add a cup of wine, (prefer red) but you can also use white table wine like I did tonight. The mushrooms need to cook down and this is going to take some time. I take two (2) bouillon cubes and pulverize so that I have a fine powder. I add this to the saute, This will add another layer of flavor and richness. I continue cooking down till the liquid is about half. You can then thicken with flour to make a richer sauce.

Bearnaise Sauce

Separately I made a Bearnaise sauce as this is what I needed to serve with the Filet.

The Bearnaise sauce can also be spooned over the Broccoli or the Baked Potato in lieu of butter.

I added Broccoli and the Baked Potato to finish this wonderful meal.

For a perfect baked potato, I selected some large Idaho Potatoes that I found at Kroger today. I get excellent results when I coat the potato with olive oil and kosher salt. Wrap in Foil and then put in a 425 degree oven for 1-1/2 hours..