For Thanksgiving, I refused to make turkey.  I like crispy skinned turkey wings, deep fried skin, and smoked legs at the fair.  But, if I have a choice, then turkey falls to the bottom of my to eat meat list.  For Thanksgiving, I wanted to make a meat dish that was out of the ordinary, and not poultry.  After some thought, I decided to make a beef tenderloin.  Beef tenderloin is simple to prepare, tender and juicy, and makes a pretty presentation.

However, beef tenderloin is not a cheap cut of beef.  So make this dish for people you really like or really want to impress, or both.  Costco has whole untrimmed tenderloins and trimmed tenderloins.  Trimmed means the connective tissue surrounding the tenderloin and chunks of fat are already removed.  The frugal shopper in me really wanted to get the whole tenderloin because it was significantly cheaper than the trimmed version.  However, I trimmed a tenderloin years ago, and I remember it looked like I tore chunks out of it with my teeth.  I decided that more time, less cursing, and less wasted meat > diy beef tenderloin.  If I wasn’t trying to prepare 6 other dishes, then I would have trimmed my own beef.  But time was of the essence, not to mention my sanity.  So I bit the bullet and shelled out the $$$.

I decided to make a red wine shallot sauce to go with the meat.  I made the sauce the day before to save time on the day of the party.

Here is my bowl of sliced shallots and minced garlic.

I cooked the shallots and garlic in bacon fat, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook the shallots and garlic on lowish heat until it turns into a fragrant mushy brown pile.  Set the cooked shallots aside.  This is actually my second take.  My first bowl of shallots and garlic had to go in the trash because I wasn’t paying attention, and ended up burning the shit out of it.  I tried to salvage it, but it was truly burnt and unpalatable.

I made a roux with butter and flour in the same saucepan that I cooked the shallots.

I added red wine, beef stock, and tomato paste to the roux, and let it come to a boil.  Then I turned the heat to low.

So I had let the sauce simmer away for at least 10 minutes before I thought about tasting it.  It was ok, but definitely lacked something, so I threw in a sprig of dried rosemary and a small handful of dried thyme sprigs.  I dry a lot of my own herbs, and I leave them whole since the herbs lose some of their flavor once the leaves are ground up or crushed.

The sauce bubbled away for another 15 minutes or so.  The dried herbs were a good move, and the sauce tasted much better.  I also had to add a little sugar to the sauce.  I know next to nothing about wine, and I just grabbed a bottle that was given as a present.  After simmering away, it was still a little too tart, so some sugar was needed.  I fished the herbs out, and added the cooked shallots and garlic.  Once the the sauce cooled down, I put it in the fridge for the night.  Sitting overnight also allowed the flavors to meld together more.

So here is my large phallic looking strip of raw meat.  This baby was about 5.5 lbs.  On the day of the dinner, I patted the meat dry, put it on my roasting pan, and rubbed it generously with Montreal steak seasoning.

I heated up a huge pat of bacon fat on the roasting pan, and browned the tenderloin.  This is just to brown the outside, not to cook it.  This phallus meat was too large for my tongs to handle, so I ended up putting on a glove and manually flipping the meat every few minutes to brown each side.

Once the outside was browned, I put the pan in a preheated oven at 375ºF.  I stuck a meat thermometer in the thickest section to make sure I did not overcook the meat.  I actually did not keep track of how long the meat took to cook, but it was approximately half an hour or so.  I  just let it roast until the meat thermometer read 130ºF, which is medium rare.  I sliced the meat after letting it rest for 15 minutes.

While the meat rests, heat up the sauce and add the meat drippings.

Sliced tenderloin before saucing.  Notice that the meat is more medium and medium well towards the thinner end.  My mom does not like bloody meat, so the end pieces were good for her.

Red wine shallot sauce over roasted beef tenderloin.  This is an elegant meat dish to serve on a special occasion, and bonus points for being fairly simple and hard to screw up (unless you don’t pay attention).

Roast Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Shallot Sauce

Red Wine Shallot Sauce
Ingredients
– 1.5 cups sliced shallots (about 3 shallots)
– 1.5 tbs minced garlic
– bacon fat or oil for cooking the shallots
– 3 tbs butter
– 3 tbs flour
– 3 cups beef broth
– 1 cup red wine
– 1 tbs tomato paste
– 1 sprig dried rosemary
– small handful of dried thyme sprigs
– sugar to taste
– salt and pepper to taste

Directions
– Cook the sliced shallots and minced garlic on low heat in the fat of your choice.  I chose bacon fat.  Let it cook down until the shallots turn dark golden brown and mushy, stir occasionally.  Put the cooked shallots in a small bowl.
– In the same saucepan, melt the butter.  Once the butter melts, add the flour.  Stir the mixture until it turns golden brown.
– Add the broth, wine, and tomato paste to the roux, and give it a stir.  Turn the heat up to let it come to a boil, then turn the heat to low.
– Add the dried herbs, and let the sauce simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until it thickens to your liking.  Taste the sauce.  Depending on the wine and broth you use, you may need to add sugar, salt, and pepper.  Strain the herbs out.  Add the cooked shallots and garlic.
– If you are making the sauce ahead of time, put the cooled sauce in the fridge until ready to use.  When you are ready to serve the sauce, heat it up on the stove.
– Stir in the drippings from the roast beef.
– Pour over the sliced beef, and or set the bowl aside for guests to pour their own sauce.

Roast Beef Tenderloin
Ingredients
– 5 lb trimmed beef tenderloin
– Montreal steak seasoning
– bacon fat

Directions
– Pat the tenderloin dry, and rub it generously with steak seasoning.
– Brown the tenderloin in bacon fat on the roasting pan.
– Put the pan in a preheated oven at 375ºF for about 30 minutes or so.  Use a meat thermometer to ensure you have a perfectly roasted piece of meat.  Stick the thermometer in the thickest part of the meat.  Beef tenderloin tastes best when cooked to medium rare.  So once the thermometer reads 130ºF, take the meat out of the oven.
– Let the meat rest for 15 minutes, and slice thin to serve.