My mother's 's side Christmas party is at my house this year. I do not cook a lot of traditional meals even though I cook constantly. I make a lot more Italian, Mexican, Latin, etc type meals versus the major American holiday meals. Most of the people at this party will expect a more "normal" meal, so I started doing a bit of digging to see what I may cook up for this meal. Awhile back I grabbed the Nolan Ryan beef and barbecue cookbook from the local library. Most of these types of books are pretty hokey, and basically seem like a money grab based on the famous name. This one seemed to have some solid looking recipes in it, so I used one that looked good for this trial run. It is for a wild mushroom and cranberry stuffed tenderloin with port wine pan sauce.
I did not want to waste a full tenderloin on an experiment so I bought a 1.5 lbs eye of round roast to test the recipe for flavor. I also did not make the pan sauce since I was mainly just testing recipe flavor. I figured if it was decent with eye of round it would be a little special with tenderloin.
The recipe in the book is:
1 beef tenderloin 4 to 5 pounds with steak seasoning
Seasoning:
3 tbs kosher salt
3 tbs garlic powder
3 tbs paprika
3 tbs of the above mixed with 2tbs ground coriander.
Wild mushroom cranberry mix:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1tbs garlic
2 portobello caps
2 oyster mushrooms
1 tbs salt
2cups dry red wine
1cup panko bread crumbs
2 poblano peppers, seeded, finely diced
2 cups fresh or dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
Heat oil in Saute pan, add garlic. Add chopped mushrooms and salt. Saute until soft. Add wine. Simmer until pan is nearly dry. Let cool. Put cooled mix in food processor,and process until fine. Add remaining ingredients, and mix well.
The recipe says to butterfly the tenderloin. I cut the eye of round roast into a flat 1/2 inch piece by cutting into the edge at a 45 degree angle in a spiraling fashion. I spread the mushroom mix onto the roast, rolled it jelly roll style, seasoned with the seasoning mix, then seared in a hot pan on all sides. I put the seared roast on a rack over a cookie sheet, and cooked at 350 until internal temp was 142.
I let the roast rest for about 10 minutes, and sliced into half inch slices. It was way better than I imagined even with the eye of round versus the tenderloin. This will be on my Christmas menu along with the pan sauce that I have yet to make.
The pan sauce in the book is:
2 1/2 tbs unsalted butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tbs chopped fresh thyme
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups port wine
2 cups beef broth
Melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots, thyme, and garlic. Saute until soft. Add port. Simmer until reduced by half. Add beef broth. Simmer for 15 minutes. Pour over sliced meat.
This time of year, people always seem to be looking for great holiday meals. I think this will be a solid choice at my holiday party, and just figured I'd share so people looking for ideas may get some inspiration.
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I posted this somewhere else, and figured I would copy and paste here in case you were interested in the recipe. I have a few updated pics below since I did the actual tenderloin this past Saturday. No finished pics. People showed up early so I was on the clock. It turned out great though.
