I’m going to be recreating for you a food memory with this beautiful fillet mignon steak with a peppercorn sauce. Place a medium-sized frying pan over high heat the season a nice fillet steak with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. There are plenty of ways to cook filet mignon but this is by far my favorite. If you go out to a nice steakhouse then this is most likely the method they are using to cook your filet. Beef tenderloin refers to to the cut of beef taken from the smaller end of the tenderloin. The tenderloin refers to a small area of muscle near the back of the cow situated near the sirloin, top sirloin, and short loin. Filet Mignon is simply beef tenderloin that has been sliced into individual steaks. Filet Mignon steaks are often thick cut and are so wonderful. The total amount of time it takes to cook Filet Mignon depends on a few factors.
Filet Mignon cooks up in about 15 minutes, start to finish. It truly is an easy dinner recipe. The absolute best way to cook a Filet Mignon is to pan fry the steaks in high-quality butter with fresh herbs and garlic. Once the steaks get a nice sear on both sides you will finish them off in a hot oven until they’ve reached the desired internal temperature. This recipe starts by setting your Filet Mignon steaks out at room temperature. Do this at least an hour before I plan on cooking them. If the steaks are cold when you cook them, the outside will cook much faster than the inside resulting in steaks that are usually overcooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside. Generously coat the Filet Mignon steaks with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
Remember to always oil the steak and not the pan because it does prevent things from burning. Begin searing the steak for 3 to 4 minutes per side, when the first side is done, just flips it and fo it again, its really important that you also sear the sides. When your steak is ready, set it aside on a plate along with a nice knob of butter. Cover that and let it rest for ten minutes. For the peppercorns, put the same pan on low heat then you are going to use white peppercorn, slightly crushed. Sieve the peppercorns to remove the powder and spot it from burning in the pan. Deglaze the pan using brandy than a drizzle of white wine, reduce that by half so turn up the heat then add concentrated beef stock and reduce that by a third.
Turn off the heat and add in the double cream, you don’t want to burn the cream but you want to thicken the sauce. We need a light toffee color then add a touch of butter, it will definitely make that sauce silkier and shinier. Serve that with a beautiful mash and some creamed spinach and then that beautiful silly sauce all over that steak.
Ingredients;
- 16 ounces filet mignon 2 steaks, about 2 inches thick, room temperature
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper freshly ground
- 2 tablespoons butter Kerrygold recommended
- 2 cloves garlic smashed
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 2 sprigs thyme
Instructions;
- Take steaks out of the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to cook them to allow them to come to room temperature.
- Coat both sides with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Add butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme to oven safe stainless steel or cast iron pan.
- Heat over medium-high to high heat. You want the pan to be as hot as you can get it without burning the butter.
- Allow butter to melt, swirling frequently to prevent burning. The more you move the butter around, the less it will burn.
- As soon as the butter is melted, add both steaks to the hot pan. Sear 2-3 minutes on both sides, constantly spooning the hot butter onto the steaks, and only turn once after they get nicely browned.
- Do not let the butter burn – keep it moving. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of steak and transfer pan with steaks to a hot oven.
- Finish cooking in a hot oven. Remove when internal temperature reaches 120 degrees F for rare, 125 degrees F for medium rare, and 130 degrees F for medium.
- This should take around 10 minutes. Allow steaks to rest in pan for at least 5 minutes.
