Roasted Fillet with Red Wine Rissotto & Pear Tart

Main: Roasted Eye Fillet with Red Wine Risotto
Women’s Weekly The Complete Book of Modern Classics

Dessert: Pear Tart
Women’s Weekly The Complete Book of Modern Classics

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.” – Anthony Bourdain

Hi Everyone!

Couldn’t agree more with Anthony Bourdain and the key to this week’s meal is starting with the very best quality meat. By doing this the whole process becomes flawless.

This is one to impress that special someone mid week.

Cooking the fillet to your liking in the oven is simple. Handle a piece of meat like this with respect. Not a cheap cut so needs very little attention. Just massage a little oil into it with salt and pepper. Some people like to quickly seal the meat on the cook top in a fry pan and this will keep the juices in, however, this recipe has you placing it directly into the oven. While the meat is cooking you can be making the risotto. I just love risotto and serving the meat resting on it like this just blends these subtle flavours to perfection.

There is nothing complicated here and you could do this to impress for a dinner party very easily, just add a simple salad if you like. OR, as I did add a couple of interesting vegetable dishes. The cauliflowers are so lovely at this time of year I decided to try this stir-fried cauliflower, choy sum and snake beans dish. I did it ahead of time and just gave it a gentle warm through in the microwave. It was so tasty and would stand on it’s own as a meal to serve your vegetarian friends with perhaps the addition of some tofu stir fried through it as well.

The second vegetable dish I did was cooked on the BBQ. Char-grilled vegetable salad with balsamic dressing. Perfect at room temperature. So really either of these vegetable dishes could be used at your next BBQ and the ability to do them ahead makes life so easy.

I was really happy with this main meal. It ticked so many boxes and was given a 9/10.

Dessert was a no brainer with the way the pears are at present and when I saw the simplicity of the recipe I just had to use it. I cooked the pears rubbed with the syrup, sugar and butter well in advance and then just placed them in store bought puff pastry squares and whacked them in the oven for 20 minutes. A dusting of icing sugar and a blob of cream and you’re done. 9/10!

I feel a bit of a fraud this week because it was all just so easy and nothing went wrong. Whoops maybe I shouldn’t have said that – may have jinxed myself!

Really hope you give this week’s menu a go yourself because you won’t be disappointed.

From my table to yours with love. x

Roasted Eye Fillet with Red Wine Risotto

The Beef

500 g piece of eye fillet
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground black pepper
¼ c dry red wine
½ c beef stock

Red Wine Risotto

3 c vegetable stock
40 g butter
1 medium brown onion (chopped finely)
1 c arborio rice
1 c dry red wine
¼ c finely grated parmesan
3 green onions (sliced thinly)

The Beef

Preheat oven to moderately hot (200°c/180°c fan forced)
Trim excess fat from fillet; tie fillet with kitchen string at 3cm intervals. Place fillet in lightly oiled shallow flameproof baking dish; brush all over with oil, sprinkle with pepper. Roast, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until cooked as desired.
Remove fillet from dish, cover; stand 10 minutes. Place baking dish over low heat, add wine; simmer, stirring, about 2 minutes or until mixture reduces by half. Add stock; stir until sauce comes to a boil. Strain sauce into small jug. Serve sliced fillet with red wine risotto, drizzled with sauce.
Whilst beef is cooking prepare risotto.

The Red Wine Risotto

Place stock in medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered. Heat half of the butter in large saucepan; cook brown onion, stirring until softened. Add rice; stir to coat rice in onion mixture. Add wine; bring to a boil. Reduce heat simmer, stirring, 2 minutes. Stir in ½ cup of the simmering stock; cook, stirring, over low heat, until liquid is absorbed. Continue adding stock mixture, in ½ cup batches, stirring until absorbed after each addition. Total cooking time should be 35 minutes or until rice is just tender. Add cheese, remaining butter and green onion, stirring until butter melts.

Stir-fried cauliflower

1 tbsp peanut oil
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp finely chopped coriander root and stem
4 green onions (sliced thinly)
500 g cauliflower florets
¼ c water
200 g snake beans (cut into 5cm pieces)
200 g choy sum (chopped coarsely)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh coriander (coarsely chopped)

Heat oil in wok; stir-fry garlic, turmeric, coriander mixture and onion until onion just softens. Remove from wok; keep warm.
Add cauliflower to same wok with the water; stir-fry until cauliflower is almost tender. Add beans and choy sum; stir-fry until vegetables are just tender.
Add juice, sauce, chopped coriander and onion mixture; stir-fry until heated through.
Also delicious at room temperature

Char-grilled Vegetable Salad with Balsamic Dressing

1 large red onion
8 medium egg tomatoes
8 baby eggplants
4 medium zucchinis
4 yellow squash (halved)
2 medium red capsicum (thickly sliced)

Balsamic Dressing

¼ c olive oil
¼ c balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove (crushed)

Cut onion and tomatoes into eight wedges each; thinly slice eggplants and zucchini lengthways.
Cook onion, tomato, eggplant and zucchini with squash and capsicum, in batches, on heated oiled grill plate or BBQ until vegetables are browned lightly and just tender.
Meanwhile, place ingredients for balsamic dressing in screw-top jar; shake well.
Combine vegetables in large bowl or on serving platter. Drizzle with dressing; toss gently to combine.

Roasted Pear Tart

3 red sensation pears (or similar)
1 tbsp maple syrup
¼ c raw sugar
40 g butter (chopped)
1 sheet ready-rolled butter puff pastry
1 egg (beaten lightly)
icing sugar for serving

Preheat oven to moderate (180°c/160°c fan-forced)
Peel pears, leaving stems intact; halve lengthways. Remove cores carefully. Place pears in baking dish, cut-side up and top with syrup, raw sugar and butter. Bake, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until tender, brushing pears occasionally with juices and turning pears over after 10 minutes.
Increase oven to moderately hot (200°c/180°c fan-forced). Grease oven tray.
Cut pastry sheet in half; place halves about 2cm apart on prepared tray.
Place 3 pear halves, with cut-side down, on each pastry strip; reserve syrup in baking dish. Brush pears and pastry with reserved syrup; brush pastry with a little of the egg. Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes or until puffed and browned.
Dust with sifted icing sugar and serve with cream or ice-cream, if desired.

Roasted Fillet with Red Wine Rissotto & Pear Tart