March 2nd - Filet Mignon with Green Peppercorn Cream Sauce

SCAVENGER HUNT

ITEM #1:  GREEN PEPPERCORNS

I cannot tell you how many hours I spent looking for green peppercorns yesterday.  I (and Brian) tried 6 different grocery stores.  I even tried small ethnic grocery stores and could not find them.  I scoured the entire southwest suburbs of Chicago to no avail.  There were none to be found.  So being the resourceful chef I am, I decided to use capers instead.  

ITEM #2 FILET MIGNON

Seeing as I couldn't find green peppercorns (to be authentic) and the fact that I'm still poor, I was in no way going to buy an expensive piece of filet mignon for this recipe.  Sorry.  Instead, I got a cheaper piece of beef and pounded the heck out of it with a meat tenderizer. 

THE RECIPE 

Ingredients:

Beef Broth: Had

Butter: Had

Steak: $4.79

Shallots: $0.89

Whipping Cream: $1.99

Brandy: Had

Green Peppercorns / Capers: $2.19

Total: $9.86

THE RESULTS

Fast:  This recipe took me a total of 35 minutes to make.  It seems like it should have been a lot quicker! FYI: The reduction times in the recipe are wrong.  Reducing the beef broth down to 3/4 cup took more than 7 minutes (15 minutes in fact) and unless you want a watery cream sauce, you'll have to reduce the final sauce down for at least 10-15 minutes.

Easy:  Very.  You are just pan frying steaks and making a quick sauce. 

Fresh:  I liked the cream sauce.  It was very good with the capers.  Someday, when I find the green peppercorns, I will make this again.  I would however add just a touch of fresh chopped parsley to give it a little boost.

Overall:  Not bad.   I can see this recipe going really well with a good tender cut of meat (mine wasn't so tender).  The sauce is definitely a make a head recipe.  It seems a little putzy for what it is, but like my mom said, "all good things take time". 

Tomorrow is just rice.  A little boring.  Maybe I'll whip something else up to include.