Sunday, February 15, 2009

CSA week 11 - filet mignon with Gorgonzola creamed arugula and rosemary garlic roasted potatoes

I don't often make the classic American dinner plate of meat, starch and vegetable, but I wanted to make the arugula into a side dish, I've got these potatoes here and half the tenderloin I bought is still taking up precious freezer space so it seemed like the way to go.

The filet mignon I seasoned with salt and pepper then cooked a couple minutes on each side and a minute on each edge in plenty of butter and olive oil at medium high heat. Nothing fancy there.

The potatoes are the recipe Fabio used to wow the chef Jedi council on Top Chef this week. I quartered four of the new potatoes and simmered them until tender. Then I drained them and tossed them with a couple smashed garlic cloves, a dismembered stick of rosemary, salt, pepper and a little olive oil. That went into a 375 degree oven for a bit over an hour. I turned the potatoes at around 40 minutes so more than one edge would brown well.

The arugula is a variation of a pasta sauce and includes mushrooms and tomato too. I'm out of fresh mushrooms so I used some dried creminis. I briefly sautéed them in a little butter, added the finely chopped tomato and arugula and sautéed for another minute until the arugula wilted. Then I poured in a bit too much cream and added the Gorgonzola and salt, pepper and a little nutmeg. I originally used half the arugula but it wilted quite away while the sauce was cooking down so I threw in the rest. I added a bit more Gorgonzola too while I was at it. When the cheese had melted and the cream reduced enough to form a clingy sauce, it was done.

Pretty simple, but pretty impressive too (although a smaller plate would have displayed it better). I've got to hand it to Fabio's grandmother; these are great potatoes--crispy and chewy on the outside, but with a soft fluffy center and full of flavor. The steak was done perfectly medium rare, if you consider medium rare perfect as right-thinking people do. And the creamed arugula retained a bit of texture against the creaminess of the sauce and the soft tomatoes and mushrooms. All those flavors match nicely and the Gorgonzola is fine with both the steak and potatoes so the sauce did triple duty. Add a spicy dry red wine to cut the fat and you've got a lovely meal.

4 comments:

kat said...

Classic as it might be that meal sounds like heaven to me

billjac said...

I don't think I could live on meat, veg and starch every day, but it's a nice change of pace once in a while. And if you're going to do it, something like this (or La Diva's equally tasty-looking steamed salmon with homemade mayo with potatoes and frisee salad that she posted recently) is definitely the way to go.

LaDivaCucina said...

Thank you! I was just looking at your blog and thinking what a busy cook you've been! (I have to try that ice cream, man, it looks good!)

We are so on the same page, I made vegetarian (roasted sweet potato and black bean puree) quesadillas last night.

And...a Thai girlfriend gave me a handful of fresh kaffir lime leaves! Better get to cookin'!

billjac said...

I think I may have cooked too much too quickly. I've only got the Irish turnip & cabbage meal planned and, beyond some potatoes, I'm out of CSA ingredients to work with for the week. I'm actually going to have to go out for dinner for a change.

As for the ice cream, it was a happy accident, particularly how great it looks in close-up. I didn't think at all about how it's appearance when I was making it so all the cool different-colored little chunky bits came as a surprise when I scooped it out.