Roast Beef Tenderloin with Port Sauce

Ingredients

• Ingredients Beef:
• 1 4- to 5-pound trimmed whole beef tenderloin tail end tucked under, tied every 3 inches
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• Sauce:
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, divided
• 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
• 3 tablespoons Cognac or brandy
• 1 fresh rosemary sprig
• 1 teaspoon coarsely cracked black pepper
• 1 cup ruby or tawny Port
• Simple Homemade Beef Stock
• Roasting:
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons black peppercorns coarsely cracked in mortar with pestle or in resealable plastic

Preparation

For beef:

Sprinkle entire surface of beef tenderloin with coarse kosher salt. Place beef on rack set over large rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate uncovered at least 24 hours and up to 36 hours.

For sauce:

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add shallots; saut? until soft, 3 minutes. Add Cognac, rosemary, and 1 teaspoon cracked pepper and cook until liquid evaporates, 1 minute. Add Port; bring to simmer. Add all of beef stock. Boil until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 20 minutes. Strain into medium saucepan, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids in strainer. DO AHEAD: Can be made 24 to 36 hours ahead. Cool slightly, then cover and chill.

For roasting:

Let beef stand at room temperature 1 hour before roasting. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425?F. Rub beef all over with oil; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cracked peppercorns, pressing to adhere. Return beef to rack on baking sheet and roast until instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of meat registers 125?F for medium-rare (135?F to 140?F in thinnest part), about 30 minutes. Remove roast from oven and let rest 15 minutes.

Bring sauce to boil; whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut off string from roast. Cut roast crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices; arrange on platter. Serve with sauce.

TEST-KITCHEN TIP: Salting in advance, also called dry brining, is often done to improve the texture of sinewy cuts of meat. But it also works magic on tender cuts, amping up flavor and juiciness. It sounds counterintuitive; for years the accepted wisdom was that pre-salting dries out meat. But the moderate salting you'll be doing here does the opposite. Water is first drawn out of the meat and then gets reabsorbed; this saltier, more flavorful moisture helps intensify taste. What's more, the exterior of the tenderloin dries out slightly, making it quicker to brown in the oven.

How To Make Simple Beef Satay

Just Follow This Simple Step..I Mean DIY..its so delicious..

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 .92-ounce package Good Seasons Roasted Garlic salad-dressing mix
• 1 pound presliced sirloin
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• wooden skewers soaked in water

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of the dressing mix, and 3/4 cup water and set aside.
2. If the beef strips have not already been flattened, gently pound them flat with a rolling pin. In a bowl, toss together the beef, oil, and remaining salad-dressing mix. Coat each strip of beef well and thread a skewer through it.
3. Broil 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve the satays hot with the dipping sauce.

How to Steam Fish and Seafood

Step 1

Use a knife to cut the fish into fillets. Remove the bones from the fish with a knife. You can also cut off the skin if desired.

Step 2

Season the fish fillets or seafood with your choice of spices, if desired.

Step 3

Put about ½-inch of water in the bottom of the steam pot and place it on a burner on the stove.

Step 4

Turn the stove burner on high heat to bring the water in the steam pot to a boil.

Step 5

Place the steaming insert in the steam pot and then arrange the fish fillets or the seafood in the steaming insert. Be sure to put the fish fillets or the seafood in a single layer in the steaming insert to allow for even cooking. Put the lid on the pot.

Step 6

Allow the water in the steam pot to boil. Cook the fish fillets or seafood until they are done. The time it will take varies depending on the type of fish or seafood and the thickness of the fish fillets.

Step 7

Test for doneness. Well-cooked fish will flake with a fork.

Step 8

Serve the fish or seafood as is, over rice or in your favorite recipe.



Tips & Warnings

*You can also marinate the fish fillets or seafood with your favorite marinade before you steam them in your steam pot.

*You can also steam vegetables, such as sliced onions, asparagus or broccoli to along with the fish fillets or seafood.

*Typically, fish or seafood will steam cook in 5 to 10 minutes, and it appears opaque when they're cooked. Well-cooked fish will also flake with a fork.

*Be careful to not cut yourself when filleting fish and removing the bones.

*Don't overcook seafood and fish. It will dry it out and make it tough.

KEBAB

Whether you call them skewers, kebabs, kabobs , shish kebabs , satay , yakitori or brochettes , just about every culture's culinary tradition includes deliciously marinated and seasoned cubes of meat threaded onto a skewer and grilled over a hot fire. When choosing beef for kebabs, buy something that's moderately tender. Top sirloin is a good choice, although a yogurt-based marinade can make tougher cuts of meat wonderfully tender as well. When threading meat and vegetables onto skewers, you'll get the best results if you stick with one kind of food on each skewer since each meat and vegetable has a slightly different cooking time. It may not look quite as pretty, but your dinner will be much better when you don't have to scrape carbonized cherry tomatoes off of your perfectly cooked beef and your rock-hard zucchini. Drag out the grill and skewer something tonight!

Steak

Most steaks you find at the supermarket are good for grilling, although some, such as flank steak , require careful treatment in order for them to be tender enough to eat. It's possible to drop a small fortune on a prime steak, but it's certainly not necessary to spend that much for a very tender and tasty piece of beef. Some of the most tender steaks are the most expensive: the tenderloin, the porterhouse , and the T-bone . Some other steaks that are nearly as tender and just as delicious are the chuck top blade, the New York , the club , the rib-eye and the rib , the top sirloin and the round tip. If you're looking to reduce the fat in your cookout, take note that the leanest cuts of beef come from the loin and the round.

Dry Aging Beef to Increase Its' Tenderness

• Dry aging occurs while the beef is hanging in a refrigerated cooler, at a specific temperature and humidity, for 10 to 28 days after harvest and prior to cutting.

• When beef is dry aged two things happen. First, moisture evaporates from the muscle creating a greater concentration of beefy flavor and taste. Secondly, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the fibrous, connective tissue in the muscle, tenderizing it. Most of the tenderizing activity occurs in the the first 10 to 14 days.

• Some high quality restaurants age their meat for 28 days or more. Increased aging adds to the shrinkage and trim loss due to the drying and surface mold.

• Up until 20 years ago, dry aged beef was the norm, then with the advent of vacuum packaging along with increased efficiencies in beef processing and transportation, we lost the dry aging process.

• In today’s modern processing plants, the carcass is broken down and vacuum-sealed in plastic bags within 24 hours. Much of this beef will show up in a grocery store meat case within 2 to 4 days after harvest.

• Beef can be "wet aged" in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag for improved tenderness but it will not have the characteristic dry aged flavor.

• Because refrigerated storage is expensive, only the high priced loin and rib cuts are aged (wet or dry).

What Aging Does

Cooked, unaged beef has been described as "metallic" and lacking in typical beef flavor. Aging gives beef a flavor that has been described as "gamy." True beef flavor is fully developed after about 11 days of aging. The aged beef flavor increases with increasing aging time.

Aging also increases tenderness. It has been shown that during the aging process certain changes take place in portions of the structure of collagen and muscle fibers. Currently, it is thought that enzymatic-caused changes in the structure of muscle fibers are largely responsible for the increase in tenderness. It is known that tenderness decreases immediately after slaughter while rigor mortis takes place (taking 6 to 12 hours to complete); then tenderness increases gradually. Tenderness continues to increase up to 11 days, after which there is no increase in tenderness.

One study showed that maximum tenderness and progress of tenderization during aging varies among muscles and is associated with the color of the carcass lean. (See Animal Science folder F0-0688 for a discussion of "Dark-Cutting Beef.") In general, aging dark-cutting beef beyond seven days did little to increase tenderness. However, in carcasses where lean was lighter in color, tenderness continued to improve during up to 16 days of aging.

The tenderness effects of aging are more evident in carcasses from older animals than in the usually more tender lean from younger animals' carcasses.

Aging also decreases the shelf life of fresh meat products. Ground beef made from trimmings from aged beef carcasses usually has a shorter shelf life in the retail case and in your refrigerator, primarily because of increased microbial growth that occurs on certain parts of the carcass during the aging process.

Some research has demonstrated that as fresh meat ages, the activity of the various enzymes decreases and protective action against oxidation declines, thus increasing susceptibility to oxidation. This suggests that oxidation of fresh raw meat becomes increasingly important the more meat is aged.

During the aging process, one can also expect a loss of weight of the product. Because the lean (exclusive of trimmable fat and bone) is approximately 70 percent water, it's easy to see why there is a weight loss. The weight loss is caused by dehydration of the lean and fat. The weight loss occasionally occurs at tremendous proportions depending on relative humidity, amount of air flow and temperature of the aging cooler. During chilling of the hot carcass immediately after slaughter, the carcass will lose 2 to 3 percent of its weight because of moisture loss. Aging the carcass beyond this time will result in additional tissue shrinkage of 1 to 1.5 percent for each seven days. Carcasses with a thin external fat cover will lose more moisture than carcasses with a heavy fat cover. One study observed an 18 percent trim and shrink loss from loins aged 14 days in a 36 degrees F cooler.