Tenderloin in Red Wine and Peppercorn Sauce

This dish is the result of an accident, and an inability to keep my wine stores properly stocked... a very happy accident indeed.

I set out one monday evening after a delightful and unusually enterprising meeting with a close friend of mine to make steak in peppercorn sauce (steak au poivre), a recipe I got out of a cruise ship cook book of all places, and one which my family has come to adore. As with all endeavors based solely on good intentions and plans made with half a brain late one evening, I found myself missing crucial ingredients, as well as with a fridge stocked with prepped veggies for dinners long since past. A single bottle of wine, red wine, the wrong wine, stared plainly at me from the back of my cupboard, laughing mercilessly at the contortionist act one has to endure to simply peer into the depths of the aforementioned cupboard, let alone reaching blindly back only to knock the bottle over. 

I counted my ingredients:

tenderloin medallions, cut 1 1/4 inch thick

1/3 cup red wine

2 tbs green peppercorns in brine

one half white onion diced

6 or 7 quartered button mushrooms

1 cup to 1 1/4 cup beef stock

1 tbs sugar (optional)

and the ingredients to make a roux, 1 tbs each flour and oil

This should work, I said now with a sore back. Why shouldn't it work? Well, I'll spoil the ending for you now, it did work!

I started with the sauce, having decided to grill the tenderloin instead of pan sear, I would not be developing any delicious fond in the pan to boil into the sauce, and knowing that I could keep the sauce hot while I waited for the tenderloins to be cooked to perfection all at once on the grill. 

-Discard the brine from the peppercorns, and rinse with water. Crush the peppercorns lightly with a mortar and pestle, or with the back of a pan.. or something large and flat and otherwise capable of smooshing brined peppercorns, and leave to soak in the red wine

-Saute button mushrooms in a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of vegetable oil until the edges start to brown.

-Add the onions and continue cooking until the mushrooms are caramelized and the onions become translucent and only very slightly browned

-Add the flour and the oil for the roux and cook, stirring for a minute until the flour forms a paste and clings to the mushrooms

-Add the green peppercorns and red wine mixture. stir until a slightly thinner paste is formed from with the roux

-Add the beef stock slowly, mixing constantly in order to produce a smooth sauce

Allow to simmer happily on the stove on a low heat until the onions are soft

after a few minutes have passed of simmering, taste the sauce. I added a small amount of sugar at this point which helped to balance out the sharpness of the red wine, and the salty heat from the peppercorns.

Grill the tenderloin medallions until done to your liking, and allow to rest before smothering in a blushing deep burgundy sauce which you have fortunately prepared in advance, you smart rascal, you. 

A word on tenderloins and peppercorns, from which this recipe is named... but not about red wine, as my lower back holds a grudge.

Tenderloins: a delightfully tender meat with little fat, little connective tissues, and not well known for its flavor. This loin sits against the ribs of the cow, and as such some fat can be found towards the larger side of the cut. Use the same principals when buying tenderloin as when buying any other choice cut meats. Fat marbling will be your biggest clue, as it seems most tenderloins come shrink wrapped and wet aged at local wholesalers.

Cooking tenderloin can be a little bit tricky, depending on the methods you use to test doneness. poking at the meat with your finger will likely give false results of doneness, as tenderloin is generally much more tender than other cuts of meat, go figure. Chances are while you were flipping the medallions on the grill, the meat fibers will start to separate naturally to give you a glimpse of the doneness inside. If you must, you have my permission to make a small cut into one of the medallions, as the juices lost from a small cut will be nothing compared to a grill full of overcooked and rather expensive meat, and the knowledge of tenderloin doneness is a valuable tool. 

Brined green peppercorns used to come in a can which held softer and slightly less potent peppers, and were easier to work with. However now it seems that I can only find the bottled version, which are rather unpleasant to bite into without first crushing the peppercorns, and then allowing them a short soak in red wine to take away some of their bite. These are the same green peppercorns you find in spice mills, only instead of desiccating them, they are soaked in a brine like capers... but they are peppercorns, not capers.

Peppercorns prepared in this way are a magical culinary device. They are very bold, but they fit into many recipes where a strong pepper flavor is desired. I highly recommend experimenting with these on your relatives and others who will give you honest feedback.