To end the year on first, I did something that in all my nearly 45 years on this planet, have never done before tonight. I cooked Filet Mignon. After reading a couple guides and YouTube videos (the only time I use YT is as a helpdesk), I removed the silver skin, cut the tail off, and then the "extra bit" that will be used for something else. After, I cut what was left into 2-inch steaks.
I ended up with seven medallions from the piece, which was around 1.5kg to start with. Taking into consideration the rest I had cut off and will use later (we are dog sitting and I fried up the tail [not a real tail] for it - it loved it), each steak is around 200 grams (almost a half pound). This is a good size for my wife and I, though a little larger would have been fine.
This was Smallsteps' first ever "proper" steak - and she loved it.
Nearly.
As I was pan-searing and then putting them into the oven to finish, I had buy a pan that could go from induction stove straight into the oven, and I found a decent Swiss Diamond one on post-Christmas sale yesterday. However, this is where I ran into a little bit of trouble.
Not only have I never cooked Filet Mignon before, I have never cooked a steak on the stove that we have, nor in the frying pan I had bought. The guides had said to have a hot pan and do each cut side for two minutes, rolling the sides of the steak to brown for a minute between. But what is hot? I put it on "hot" and it was too hot and started to smoke. The in-counter exhaust did a decent job overall, but it couldn't handle that amount of smoke, and I smoked the house out.
No fire alarms though.
Not sure if I should be happy, or worried about that.
But, it was just one side that got slightly too hot, and our induction stove adjusts very fast, so the rest of it ran smoothly. So, once the sides had been rolled to brown, and then butter poured over as the last cut side had its two minutes facedown. Then, it was into the oven at 200C (400F) for "long enough" depending on how one likes it. For me, medium-rare all the way, sometimes even a little rarer even, my wife medium, and since it was Smallsteps' first time, I had hers in a little longer, so it was closer to medium-well. 5,7,8 minutes.
And then after resting for a few minutes under some foil to finish, it was served at the table with a simple salad, and it was good! Okay, there was a little bit of a burned taste in a few bites on one side of the steak, so it won't win any awards, but for the first time ever, it really was pretty decent.
While we were eating, my wife had made a very simple pear crumble dish for desert, with cubed pears, and rolled oats mixed with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Served straight from the oven with some vanilla ice cream, it was a great way to not only finish dinner, but also to close out 2023 and look to the soon to be 2024 year ahead.
Happy New Year!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]