Roast Fillet of Beef, Kimber’s Duck Fat roast home grown spuds, French beans and a red wine, mushroom, shallot and tarragon cream sauce.
Pan seared and oven roasted, fillet of beef medium rare, served with boiled fine French beans and skin on home grown potatoes roasted in duck fat saved from confit duck legs cooked with garlic rosemary and sage. All served with a button mushroom, shallot, tarragon, red wine cream sauce.
Sat fillet out at room temperature. Rubbed with fresh minced garlic and olive oil and wrapped in cling film with some fine chopped rosemary and thyme inside. Parboil potatoes and let dry add to hot duck fat in a tray, season with sea salt and roast till crispy pressing down half way through the cook to slightly flatten creating crispier edges. Keep warm for plating up. Simply boil beans and drain off so tender. Sautee finely chopped shallots in butter and olive oil till soft, add in finely sliced mushrooms and cook till soft, stir in fresh minced garlic, a generous pinch of dried tarragon, generous grind of black pepper, glug of medium sherry, half a cup of red wine and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, half teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Stir then add half a cup of beef stock and a bay leaf and cook on a medium low heat to reduce. Later add half a cup of cream and heat until a good sauce consistency adding more cream or stock to get desired thickness and creaminess. Taste and season adding more black pepper if a pepper corn style sauce is desired. For fillet, unwrap and once at room temperature heat oven proof frying pan on hob till almost smoking and sear each side of the fillet till a thin deep brown crust achieved, add in large knob of butter and an unpeeled garlic clove to pan with some fresh thyme and use spoon to baste melted butter over meat. Put fillet in the same pan in the oven roasting on a high heat about 210 Celsius. Set timer for 4 minutes and turn fillet every 4 minutes till all sides cooked on basting each time and not burning hands in process.. use probe to see temperature depending on preference. This was about 53 degrees for more rare to medium. Rest beef for ideally half of cooking time. Slice and serve on warm plates with the warm vegetable accompaniments and the warm mushroom sauce.
