Thursday, July 31, 2008

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Cabernet-Mustard Sauce, Livin' La Vida Costco

I love Costco. For those of you who don't know or have Costcos in your part of the world, it is a "wholesale" buying club. For a $50US annual fee, members have access to thousands of items at heavily discounted prices. You can buy everything from computers to cars to caskets. They sell books, clothes, wine and all sorts of food.

Costco is also about bulk shopping. If you want olive oil, the smallest amount is (2) 2-liter jugs, ketchup - (3) 44 oz. bottles - that's right, a gallon of ketchup. The compensating factor in all of this is that prices are 1/3 to 1/2 what they would be in a "normal" store. Now this is not weekly shopping, more like once every two months, but the price-quality combination can't be matched.

When I buy foodstuffs there, it's either something that can last a long time, (e.g. a 25 lb. of all-purpose flour), or can be subdivided. I buy whole pork loins (6 - 8 pounds @ $5.99 pound), or any kind of beef, from strips of steaks to entire tenderloins ($9.99/lb). When I get back from Costco my kitchen quickly turns into a butcher shop as I trim, divide, shrink wrap and freeze various cuts of meat.

This is not the place if you're an impulse shopper, unless you enjoy the risk of soup by the gallon or 20-lb. bags of dog treats. The one thing more important than my Costco shopping list is the list on the back telling me what we don't need.

Costco, I love it.

Today I'm making a grilled beef tenderloin with a Cabernet-mustard sauce. The pictures will reveal that even Crabby screws up; I obviously overcooked the beef. Most of the ingredients come from Costco, though not the parsley, there's no chance I could go through that much shrubbery before it spoiled. Enjoy.


Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Cabernet-Mustard Sauce
by Crabby, inspired by various cookbooks and magazines
Serves 4










1 piece beef tenderloin, approx 1 -1 1/4 lbs.
Salt & Pepper

3 TBSP butter, separated into 1 TBSP pieces
1/2 cup chopped shallots
3/4 cup Cabernet Sauvignon Wine
1 TBSP Dijon or Country Style Mustard
1 TBSP capers, drained
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Preheat your grill over high heat. Salt and liberally pepper the beef. When grill is ready, lightly brush the grill grates with oil.

Place beef on oiled grate, turn down heat to medium high. Turn beef approximately every 3 minutes for a total cooking time of 9 minutes (this should result in a rare to medium-rare piece of beef).

Please note, beef tenderloins seem to have a triangular shape so you should be able to grill the meat on three sides. If your piece will not cooperate, grill each side for approximately 4 1/2 minutes, (Depending on the thickness of the beef, more or less grilling time will be in order. Don't panic! At $9.99/ pound you can afford the occasional screw up).

Remove beef from the grill, tent with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Sauce

While meat is grilling, melt 1 TBSP butter in a pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and saute until just softening, approximately 2 minutes.

Add the wine, mustard and capers. Simmer the mixture until it starts to thicken, (anywhere from 2 - 5 minutes).

Reduce the heat to medium and whisk in remaining butter 1 TBSP at a time, making sure the first piece is fully incorporated before adding the 2nd TBSP.

Remove from heat, add the parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Slice the beef and serve with a spoonful of sauce.



There you go, a nice cut of beef and a very simple sauce. Combined with a California Cabernet and you have the body of a great summer's dinner.

That's it for today; remember crablings, you can do it, you can cook.

Now if I can just find a place to store 54 rolls of paper towels. Be back soon.

5 comments:

DelShnell said...

Beautiful photos. I am recommending this post to all of my friends at the Cassandra Crossing.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes you just have to be a contrarian. Even though this delicious dish is made with Cabernet, the mustard-beef combo is even better with a Pinot Noir... but that's just me. Dijon, the city, is the capitol of Burgundy, where Pinot Noir is King. Dijon is also where the mustard comes from, but, most "Dijon" mustard is made from mustard seed imported from Canada. Again, more useless wine-food trivia. Back to the cave

WWBob

outdoorgriller said...

that is a good way to cook with the marinade but you might want to cook over medium heat for a while so that it comes out great, there are some great recipes and tips at www.cookingandgrillinoutdoors.com

Anonymous said...

Unfortumnatly I could not see the recipie due to the advertisement

www.crabbycook.com said...

I'm sorry to hear that. Please try again. The recipe and page loads fine for me.