This is not a simple recipe, but it’s well worth it if you want to impress your party guests. Makes about 20 appetizers.
Beef Walldorf with Béarnaise sauce
(courtesy of my friend chef Matt)
Ingredients:
3 medium sized fillets Mignon
1 bag of frozen puff pastry dough
1 box of white mushrooms
1/2 cup of wild dry mushrooms (optional)
2 cups of beef stock
2 tablespoons of heavy cream
2-3 spoons of flour
For the sauce:
3 table spoons of tarragon leaves
3 table spoon tarragon leaves
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 shallot
White vinegar
5 egg yolks
2 cups of butter – melt
tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of Tabasco
1 teaspoon of white pepper
In a small pan, combine finely chopped mushrooms sprinkled with salt and pepper, with beef stock and heavy cream and let simmer (slowly on low heat) until all the liquid is reduced and mushrooms turned into almost a pate. Set a side and let it cool.
Unfold thawed sheet of dough on wooden surface evenly dusted with flour. Cut into small squares (about 3”). Cut a small cubes of raw fillet Mignon (about 1,5”) and put one piece on one half of each small square of puff pastry. Add a little bit of mushroom’s mix to each square and fold the dough over (cover and press ends to seal).
Cover baking sheet with parchment paper and pre-heat your oven to 350 F. Smear each square with whisked egg whites and bake until light brown (about 30-40 minutes, depends on the size of your squares).
Béarnaise Sauce:
In a small pan add all tarragon leaves, teaspoon black pepper, finely chopped shallot and white vinegar just enough to cover the herbs and let simmer to reduce.
In double broiler:
Add egg yolks, lemon juice, splash of Tabasco and white pepper to a bowl and mix together very carefully over the pan with boiling water (use caution not to set eggs). Keep stirring it until sauce thickens. Turn off the heat and carefully add 2 cups of melted butter (not hot). Add the tarragon reduction into the eggs mixture and season it with salt and pepper, if desired.
Suggested wine pairing:
Since we used a high quality beef in this recipe with combination with very rich flavor of mushrooms – any, even bigger red wine will work with it. The dipping sauce, on the other hand is acidic, so I have chosen new Spanish wine called VOLVER to match with this. Lovely combination!
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