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Dinner

We are going be hosting dinner on Christmas Eve, and the main course will be a beef roast recipe that we took from Gourmet Magazine. Herb Filet of Beef with Tomato Confit. (recipe will follow.) We wanted to try it on ourselves before we served it as a main course on Christmas Eve. The rest of this article has the results.

Ingredients

For beef
2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped shallot
2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 (4- to 4 1/2-pound) trimmed beef tenderloin roast, tied

For tomato madeira confit
8 large garlic cloves
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 (14-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped thyme
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1/2 California or 1 Turkish bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 cup Madeira (preferably Verdelho), divided
1/4 cup water

Preparation

Marinate beef:
Stir together garlic, shallot, herbs, oil, kosher salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper, then rub all over beef. Marinate in a sealed large bag, chilled, 1 day.

Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before roasting.

Make confit:
Cook garlic in oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-low heat, turning occasionally, until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Add tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf, sugar, 1/4 teaspoon table salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and 1/2 cup Madeira and briskly simmer, stirring frequently and crushing tomatoes with a heatproof rubber spatula, until tomatoes start to break down and oil separates slightly, about 1 hour.

Mash garlic into tomatoes with spatula, then stir in 1/4 cup Madeira. Discard bay leaf.

Roast beef:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Roast beef in a 17- by 11-inch shallow heavy baking pan until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of thickest part of meat registers 120°F, 35 to 45 minutes.

Transfer to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered with foil, 15 to 20 minutes (temperature of meat will rise to about 130°F, for medium-rare).

Meanwhile, add water and remaining 1/4 cup Madeira to baking pan and deglaze over medium-low heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, 1 minute. Stir into tomato confit.

Cut off and discard string from beef, then cut meat into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Serve with confit.

Cooks’ note: Confit, without pan juices, can be made 3 days ahead and chilled, covered. Reheat and stir in pan juices from beef.

Here is a visual interpretation of the preparation and the results:

The recipe says how it is supposed to be how to be prepared. But we had a few differences between the test run and the recipe. Our first snag on the recipe is the current market rate of the type of beef preferred was about $15/lb and was packaged to be about 2-3 pounds minimum. We’re trying to do this on a budget and 2-3 lbs on a trial run is not needed. Further down the line at the Fry’s butcher market was a relatively thin cut of beef called Flat Iron Steak. It was about 2 lbs and was on special for $8. It looked incredibly lean and would fit the testing perfectly, in my opinion. Another snag we had: We had no rosemary, thyme, or shallots.

What we used instead was cilantro, yellow onions, and a spice from our rack called “Savory.” We went through the motions of the recipe to see how it would turn out. We gave the meat a surgeon’s knot tying to start. We let it sit in the fridge covered in plastic wrap, since getting the 2-foot steak to fit in a zipper bag was not going to happen.

The next afternoon, the meat was removed from the fridge and allowed to return to room temperature. The oven was heated and I set the probe thermometer at an angle so I had it deep enough into the meat, but still in the middle.

About an hour and a digital reading of 140 (I’m not a big fan of medium-rare), the beef was tented. It was cut as directed. It was beautiful. Even when my thermometer read 140 when it was pulled from the oven, the cut had at least 3 levels of flavor: some medium-rare, medium, and medium-well. We devoured this cut!

The best part, though. It has an amazing reheating value. By reheating value, I mean when you reheat your leftovers, how does the taste keep like it was prepared that day. We declared this a massive success, even without the confit. We cannot wait to serve this dish on Christmas Eve for our guests.

(Update: This post was intended to be released on 12-19, but was never completed. The meat we prepared was a standing rib roast. Our guests have already replied to this meat dish and the other dishes we made on Christmas Eve were incredible. We even made the confit as well. It turned out rich! This dish is a must-have on your entertaining list if you are going to serve beef. Happy eatings!)