fri15feb2013: peppered beef & mushroom pie

cook-a-cow, continued 

this week's cut: eye fillet/tenderloin

#'1: the eye fillet/tenderloin is cut from the loin, is the beef cut of the highest quality, with a price per kilo to match. Sitting under the ribs, next to the backbone, this muscle does very little work & is the most tender part of the animal as a result. Faster cooking methods such as grilling & frying suit the fillet. 

 

While these lovely long summer days keep coming, the slightest of chills has begun to sneak into the night air. I felt it for the first time the other night, in my mind the cry 'nooooooooooo' & then I  thought: it's time for a pie. 

In a dish, pie crust on top? pastry top & pastry bottom? Not sure yet. What I can say is that there will be beef, it will be beef eye fillet, there will be mushrooms, perhaps other vegetables too, there will be gravy (how could there not be!) & then of course there'll be pastry. Golden, flakey, delicious pastry. Puff.

Looking after the player's meals at the recent ASB & Heineken Tennis Opens here in Auckland, I had plenty of opportunity to practice the cookery of this cut, both as whole fillets & cut into steaks. Using off cuts & left overs I came up with a classically simple little mix that started with a slow cooked mire-poix of vegetables, adding to this mushrooms & a beef jus. I separately flashed a dice of seasoned fillet, adding this to the wet mix. It was really tasty. A pastry lid over the top & that's what I call a pie worthy of fridaynightdinnerbox. 

A paragraph all to itself? Why not. Along with the peppered beef & mushroom pie, mention must be made of the veg & salad which, as always, is part of dinner. Potatoes, most probably mashed, & a salad of greens & sprouts & seeds & things.

Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when I go shopping, & tell me how many dinnerboxes you'd like.

Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email:

txt: 021 676 123

email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)

& I’ll confirm your order when received.
talk to you soon…

 'Sausage John' English butcher in Gourdon, S/W France, cutting a single t-bone steak for a customer (me)