Recipe: Beef Dip

from Auntie Joyce

Serves: 8

18 small waxy potatoes (red or white)

Salt

2 pork tenderloins, 1½ pounds each, trimmed of fat

Freshly ground pepper

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the Sauce:

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup wine vinegar

¾ cup dark beer

1¼ cups Brown Veal Stock

¼ pound carrots, cut into julienne

¼ pound celery, cut into julienne

¼ pound leeks (white part only), cut into julienne

¼ pound mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed, dried, and cut into julienne

¼ pound turnips, cut into julienne

You can find the recipe for Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl, mix the lavender, rosemary, onions, garlic and bay leaf.

In a small saucepan, reduce the white wine by half and add it to the lavender mixture.

Put all the ingredients back into the pan and reduce it to the consistency of molasses.

Dry the pork tenderloin with paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Coat the pork tenderloin with the lavender mixture.

Put the tenderloin in a roasting pan and roast in the oven for 25 minutes, or until still slightly pink in the middle about 155°F-160°F.

To Freeze:
Roast to a temperature just a bit less than done so that when you reheat it, the meat will be perfect. Slice the pork and wrap between layers of wax paper. Recommended freezing time: 2-3 months.

To Prepare After Freezing:
Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Heat and serve.

Tips:
To save time, use bottled minced garlic. To save money, mince your own garlic.

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Cost: $20.75 ($2.59 per serving)

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Other Pork Tenderloin Recipes
• Crabby Cook: Dukkah Crusted Pork Tenderloin
• Serious Eats - Tom Valenti's One-Pot Meals: Pork Tenderloin Medallions
• The Perfect Pantry: Pork Tenderloin with Grilled Lavender Peaches

1 2½-pound lean bottom round roast

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 cups canned beef broth

2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup tomato sauce

2 bay leaves

2 large carrots, chopped

1 large onion, cut into quarters

2 stalks celery, chopped

6 pork chops, 6-8 ounces each

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¼ pound (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 pounds potatoes

You can find the recipe for Côtes de Porc Flamande (Baked Pork Chops with Potatoes and Thyme) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
This was such a simple and delicious meal (and affordable at $2 per plate). It was also quick and easy to make and one that I'll add to our menu rotation at home. Now if only I could get my kids to like meat!

Next Week (January 28)
• Truite aux Amandes (Trout with Almonds) pages 49-50

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Running total: $991.59 + $12.39 = $1,003.98

Butter used so far: 9 pounds

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2 pounds of beef, chopped into small cubes
1 pound pork, chopped into small cubes
1 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium-sized bell peppers, chopped
1 yellow chilies, chopped
2 long green chilies, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons red chili sauce
4-5 ounces spicy tomato sauce
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1¼ ounces chili powder, or to taste
½ tablespoon cumin powder
Dash of oregano
2 10-ounce cans of beef broth
1 19-ounce can of kidney beans
1 19-ounce can of beans
8 ounces mushrooms, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

In 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, sear meat. Add to chili pot. In another 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, sauté garlic, onions, bell pepper, and chilies. Add to chili pot. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and add flour and brown. Pour in chili sauce. Stir until smooth and pour into the chili pot. Bring to a boil and add the remaining ingredients. Cook slowly for 2½ hours, stirring often.

If the chili is too runny, strain the sauce into a bowl. Make a roux by melting ¼ cup butter. Add ¼ cup flour and cook until it has the color of peanut butter. Pour in the strained sauce and stir. Cook until thick. Pour the thickened sauce back into the chili pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper.


Serve with Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, a dollop of sour cream, and grated cheese. This would be a great chili to serve at a Super Bowl party!

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. . . . . . . . . .

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

Compound Butters
Compound butter is a fancy name for flavored butter. They’re a quick and easy way to add a burst of flavor to meat or vegetables. Michael Ruhlman has a great description in his book Elements of Cooking.

There are some standard compound butters, but the possibilities for flavoring butter are endless. Some famous compound butters are garlic butter, Maître d’Hôtel butter, and Escargot butter. 101 Cookbooks has some interesting ideas for flavor combinations. For this Mirabeau steak, the recipe called for anchovy butter. {Mirabeau means the dish has anchovies and olives.}

Compound butters don’t have to be just savory. You can also make sweet compound butters such as Honey butter or Orange butter, which contains orange zest, orange liqueur, orange juice, and icing sugar.

When making compound butter, don’t melt the butter in the microwave. You want room temperature butter, not melted butter. After adding the flavorings, you can roll it in wax paper, parchment paper, or plastic wrap and return it to the refrigerator to set. You can store it in the freezer for up to one month and slice off what you need.

Tips: If the compound butter is frozen, you can grate it onto the meat or vegetables. Another tip was to tie up compound butter in cheesecloth and rub it over corn on the cob.

Click to enlarge imageWatch a Pro
Although simple to make, I found a video showing how to make compound butter.

Café de Paris Butter
One famous compound butter is called Café de Paris butter. It consists of about 20 different ingredients all whipped into the butter, including herbs, spices, mustard, marjoram, dill, rosemary, tarragon, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, parsley, shallots, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and anchovies. According to this article, in 1941, Freddy Dumont created this compound butter at the Restaurant Café de Paris in Geneva. It became such a hit that it became difficult to get a reservation. It is described as “artery-clogging, chin-glisteningly good.”

Sides
The best parts of this recipe were the side dishes, especially the fried onions. After slicing the onions into ¼-inch rings, I sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Then, I soaked them in milk for 20 minutes. After drying them with a paper towel and dredging them with flour, I deep fried them in 360˚F oil until they were brown and crispy.

The other side dish was baked tomatoes. I just pierced the tops with an “x”, sprinkled them with salt and pepper and added a dollop of butter. Then, I baked them in a 400˚F oven for 10-15 minutes. They taste sweet and gooey after baking.

If you like anchovies and olives, you can wrap an anchovy around a pitted olive for a touch of elegance as a garnish. A fistful of watercress adds some color, crunch, and spice to the plate as well.

Recipe: Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter)

You can find the recipe for Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes As you can tell, I wasn’t fond of this steak à la Mirabeau! However, I did enjoy the Tarragon and the Escargot compound butters on my tenderloin. And the fried onions were easy and delicious and one side dish I will have to make when there are more mouths to feed since they are not good for the diet at all! I’m looking forward to trying my sweet compound butters on muffins or pancakes and making that artery-clogging Café de Paris butter soon!

With that, I'll leave you with an award-winning haiku...
Next Week (September 3)
• Brochet au beurre blanc (Whole Poached Pike with White Butter Sauce) page 307-308 {discussion of Beurre blanc (Emulsified butter with shallots) page 192}

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Running total: $669.38 + $30.82 (2 steaks) $11.42 (Mirabeau, onions, tomatoes) = $711.62

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 11 tablespoons {I didn't add all the pounds of butter I used in making all the different compound butters this week since only a 1/4 of a pound was required for the recipe. Just thought you'd like to know if you're playing along and counting your cholesterol points!}

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