Fillet Of Beef With Texas Blue Cheese Sauce

Total Time: 55 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 2 lbs center piece beef tenderloin
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 -2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 3 tablespoons dry madeira wine or 3 tablespoons ruby port
• 2 cups meat stock, reduced to 1/2 cup or 1/2 cup demi-glace
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 ounces texas blue cheese
• 4 -5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons chopped walnuts, for garnish
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley, for garnish

Recipe

• 1 lightly sprinkle meat with salt and pepper and rub a little oil on the beef (at this point you can refrigerate it, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for up to 24 hours).
• 2 if meat is chilled, one to two hours before cooking remove meat from refrigerator - you want the meat to come to room temperature.
• 3 pat meat dry.
• 4 preheat oven to 350 degrees f.
• 5 heat a non-stick skillet and rub a little more oil all over the fillet, then sear it on all sides, about 4 minutes total.
• 6 transfer meat to a wire rack and let rest at least 20 minutes or up to several hours.
• 7 discard any fat in the pan, add the shallots and madeira to the skillet and reduce to a glaze.
• 8 add the stock and reduce to a syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes.
• 9 add the cream and cook until the sauce has a nice beige color.
• 10 place the nuts on a baking tray and lightly toast, about 10 minutes.
• 11 in a food processor mix the blue cheese and 4 tbsp of the butter till smooth and creamy - if too salty, add up to another tablespoon of butter; separate into 4 parts and refrigerate.
• 12 preheat oven to 450 degrees f (30 minutes before the final cooking).
• 13 finish the beef fillet in the oven, 20 minutes for medium rare.
• 14 over low heat gently rewarm the syrupy sauce in the skillet; swirl in the cheese-butter pieces one by one.
• 15 spoon sauce onto warm serving plates.
• 16 slice meat and arrange in overlapping slices on the sauce, garnish with nuts mixed with parsley, and serve.