Well, this week I am finally back on track with the Craving Ellie in My Belly crew. The holiday season was exceptionally crazy this year and I'm sad to admit that, though I did cook, I never got pictures of any of it. I am trying to do better. My apologies to my fellow CEiMBer's on my lack of participation in December. I am going to try to do better this month.
In the spirit of doing better, I did make the Beef Tenderloin with Rosemary and Chocolate, hosted this week by Beckett Bakes It. This one of the recipes I had immediately bookmarked as soon as I got my copy of The Food You Crave. I love beef tenderloin and was intrigued by making this sauce.
The only changes I made to the recipe (linked above) were to omit the dry red wine (we just don't have it). I just substituted extra beef broth. I also didn't use a whole beef tenderloin roast. I had some beef tenderloin 'steaks' in the freezer. I've mentioned it before, but we are very lucky to get all of our beef from my in-laws who have a small farm in Northern Idaho. Otherwise, this could get to be a rather expensive dinner to make. Ellie does mention in the book though that any cut of beef will do nicely with this sauce, so I imagine you could use this with whatever you have on hand. So, how was the tenderloin? Yum. Need I say more? Well, ok, I will. But just to say that, really, a bit of oil, salt and pepper is all a good cut of beef needs.
Making the sauce itself was really fun. I like building sauces because of the process of building flavor, layer by layer. The taste itself was wonderful and I will definitely make it again. Think about your favorite steak sauce... now imagine the feeling of accomplishment when you make one yourself that tastes far better than anything store bought. The tastes are all more well melded together and it is a rather mellow and satisfying kind of sauce. I imagine you could turn up the heat quite easily if that was more your style too though.
Make sure to check out all the other beefy goodness from the rest of the CEiMB crew at the blogroll.
Posts
