Hello friends!
This week's challenge wasn't easy, I think it was actually the hardest one for me. I love making food and always try to arrange it in a pretty way, but my oh my, it's not a joke trying to match Showroom's chefs.
I spent a lot of time researching Michelin Star chefs and restaurants online, trying to get some recipe ideas and learn some tricks, every time I'd see something interesting, I'd look through the ingredients list and see an item or two that I just have no idea where to get. I was about to stop trying and just give up on the challenge this week but then I thought: "What if I just use what's available to me instead of trying to get something I've never heard of?" That made it, within a day I came up with a simple recipe and I knew what I needed right away.
I remembered that it was recommended to be creative so that is why I decided to combine meat and berries on the same plate, first I think it looks nice and second, I've never had this sort of combination before, I love experiments!
All of the items for the recipe were hand selected by me. I can't drive so I walked to this Mexican butchery/store nearby to get the ingredients for my dish, the store has been serving the community for over 40 years now and is trusted by many families in and out of state, in fact a lot of Mexican restaurants around here get their meat and produce from this store, besides it feels nice to give business to family owned shops and support the locals.
I tried my very best to create something worth a Michelin star restaurant and I really hope the guests wouldn't notice that it was a regular person cooking haha. Dear Showroom judges, I present you
Beef Tenderloin + Berries
Ingredients:
- 0,5 lb (~250g) beef tenderloin;
- 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce;
- 4 tablespoons Red wine vinegar;
- 4 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- 1-2 teaspoons cooking oil;
- fresh thyme;
- fresh rosemary;
- 1-2 radishes;
- raspberries.
Ingredients for the green sauce:
- 1 medium fresh tomatillo;
- 1 clove of garlic;
- fresh cilantro leaves (about 2 teaspoons);
- 3-4 slices of fresh jalapeno pepper;
- half a teaspoon of avocado oil.
Place all of the ingredients except for the oil in a blender and process. Add avocado oil, stir. This is what I got:
Ingredients for the yellow sauce:
- 2 slices of ripe mango;
- 1 fresh guava.
Place all of the ingredients in a blender and process. My original idea was to slightly cook the mango and guava mix, but when I tried it I liked it fresh and decided to leave as is. Also make sure the guava seeds are very well crushed, take them out or don't add guava if your blender can't crush the seeds well.
Oh yeah, while I was waiting on my tenderloin to get done marinating I made a quick smoothie from the remaining mango and some frozen banana I had in the freezer, that's a good way to not let the remaining mango waste, I think my husband @matt-a liked the smoothie :)
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Now back to that block of meat haha!
Directions:
Take the tenderloin out of the fridge at least 10-15 minutes prior to cooking and let it come to the room temperature. In a medium bowl or a Ziploc bag, combine red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle a little bit of fresh thyme and rosemary, place the meat in the bowl and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes, turn occasionally. While I was waiting on it to get done marinating, I prepared the green and yellow sauces and thinly sliced the radishes. At this point you could probably get a plate you plan on using and sort of smear the green sauce around a little bit, this is where the meat will go after it's cooked, really though I feel like everyone can play around with both sauces the way they like and create their own masterpieces!
Heat your grill pan on a high heat, splash a little bit of cooking oil, when you start noticing the steam place your fresh herbs on the pan (thyme and rosemary) and then your tenderloin. Salt and pepper the meat. Cooking time for a medium rare tenderloin of about 2 inches thick (4-5 cm) is 2-3 minutes on each side. Splash some of the remaining marinade onto the tenderloin as it's being grilled.
Take the meat off the pan and place on the plate, decorate with fresh raspberries and radishes. Let it sit for about 3-4 minutes before serving. Bon appetite!
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And once again a big thank you is going to @woman-onthe-wing for being our host, @smooth and @sirwinchester for sponsoring the challenge and to @showroom for the inspiration!
