Here are the workings for last night’s fabulous dinner. As always, click on the images for hi-resolution.

Dinner Workings

It began with two enormous filets, 12 and 11 ounces; and no, these aren’t grassfed. Oh, well.

Big Ass Filets

These were done sous vide, using the SousVide Supreme. I did them at 131F for about an hour & a half. In the meantime, I got going on slowly reducing beef marrow bone stock with red wine and at the end, thickened a bit with a a potato starch roux. This demi-glace came out perfectly — perhaps my best ever — with just the right amount of concentrated sweetness from the wine. I added wine very slowly so as to not overdo it. It’s easy to ruin with too much wine, then you’ve got to try and fix it with herbs & spices. in this case: bone stock, red wine, butter & potato starch. Nothing else whatsoever, not even salt or pepper.

Sous Vide Filet with Demi-Glace and Roasted Veggies

The veggies were zucchini & yellow squash, and brussels sprouts. I simply put them in the roasting pan with butter and olive oil, then into the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes. I then sprinkled them with paprika and fired under the broiler until they got the charred look — but not the too charred or burnt taste.

Perfectly Medium Rare

A little blurry on that last photo, unfortunately, but as you can see, the SousVide Supreme does a perfect job every time. It’s simply impossible to mess up unless you use the wrong temperature. To finish it upon completion I got a cast iron skillet super hot with bacon drippings and seared it exactly like you would do ahi tuna: 90 seconds per side, remove, and then roll the edges one at a time, if you like, but not essential. I did. You’ll notice also that the demi-glace is just the right consistency; it sticks to the end of the plate.

The nice thing about a fairly lean & tender filets, such as these, is that at 12 ounces I ended up with just about 12 ounces. And no, there were no leftovers — at least for me. I think the doggies got a couple of ounces of Beatrice’s. Then they licked both plates clean.