Roquefort Encrusted Tenderloin with Sun Dried Cherry Madeira Demi served with Puig Parahy Rancio

Roquefort Encrusted Tenderloin with Sun Dried Cherry Madeira Demi  served with Puig Parahy Rancio

Demi Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 Shallot minced
1 Tablespoon minced Garlic
2 cups Madeira Wine
3 Bay leafs
1 sprig fresh Thyme
1 cup Beef Broth
1-cup water.
1-tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons water for the cornstarch.
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
25 sundried Cherries

Demi Method
Heat up small pot add oil add Garlic, shallots and sauté till brown.
Deglaze with Madeira and then add thyme, bay leaf, and reduce by half.
Add remainder of ingredients excluding sundried cherries and cook down till thick enough to coat back of a spoon or desired sauce consistency.
Strain through china cap and add sundried cherries and simmer for 4 minutes.

Steak Ingredients
Six 2.5 ounce Medallions preferably Filet mignon.
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
5 tablespoons fresh minced Parsley
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
3 cups Homemade bread Crumb (or 3 cups store-bought)
5 ounces blue cheese preferably Roquefort
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for sautéing steak
9 egg yolks- beat thoroughly

Steak Method :
Combine chopped thyme, chopped parsley, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, and blue cheese in food processor till all ingredients are combined, then transfer to bowl.

**In separate bowl put egg yolks**

1. Dredge steak through egg yolks
2. Coat steak in blue cheese crumbs
3. Let steak rest in refrigerator for 1.5 hours

Get sauté pan hot and brown both sides of steak then remove from hot oil and transfer to baking dish and bake to desired temperature. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or to desired temperature.

Final Plating
Heat sauce to a slow boil. Ladle sauce on the dinner plate and carefully place a few cherries on the outer rim of sauce. Remove two small steaks from the pan of cooked steaks and place steaks on the pool of sauce.

Main Course is now complete. Add your favorite potato dish and vegetable to the plate for the perfect winter meal.

Bon Appetit !

And, the wine...

If one doesn’t want to buy chocolates or flowers, Valentines can be one of those holidays that can be difficult to find the right gift. Perhaps jewelry isn’t in the budget – and regardless, today all the “experts” are associating happiness not with things, but with experiences. Our featured wine is an exceptional experience – really quite priceless. In fact the importer, who has travelled and lived in Europe, wrote that he never had a more extraordinary experience than being at Puig Parahy and tasting the Rancios there.
The winery is ancient, family owned since 1446, now with one single heir – George Puig (18th generation!). The vines are some of the oldest dating back to 1878, when the vineyard was completely destroyed by phylloxera and then painstakingly replanted. The property is off the beaten pack, near the town of Passa in Southern France, just six miles from the border of Spain and nestled near the Pyrenees Mountains. It is an area filled with ancient history and the winery itself is a sort of time capsule: historic documents, ancient paraphernalia and most importantly that which can be found down in the cellar. Bottles, tanks and casks of old wine – very old wine, one of a kind wine, a treasure of some of the oldest known wine of its kind. Barrels marked 1940, 1910, 1898, 1875……Rancios.
Rancio can be an obscure wine tasting term referring to the maderized, nutty flavors of sherry or even scotch. But here, the reference is actual wine. Think of sour dough bread that begins with a starter. This wine has a “mother” that is added to the bottom of the barrel of the fermented, sweet wine (mostly Grenache Noir and some Carignan). What the “mother is, is a good question – the importer isn’t really sure. But is looks like a gross, icky glob that you wouldn’t want to stick your hand into. But this mother is like no other, because it has been developing and changing for at least 50 or 60 years. So the wine oxidizes and develops for decades until Georges bottles it. And this mother contributes to the unique and complex characteristics of this wine.
By default Georges’ vineyard is organic, because he couldn’t afford to treat them. Now he is consciously working on have them officially certified.
Once a French retailer tried to buy the entire lot, but it seems that this is a personal effort- something from the heart and not completely for sale, but more shared. Georges sells some to prestigious Parisian restaurants, and some makes it here to Colorado. It is only made in years of significance to the family – the most recent vintage of 1993 marks the year Georges inherited the winery. There are 46 extant vintages. Available in Colorado are 1975, 1953, 1945, 1930, 1900 and 1875.
With some 1945 Bordeaux selling upwards of $28,000, Georges' wines are absurdly underpriced and probably more pleasurable. The Wine Advocate awarded this wine 92 points and describes it as, “Cherry preserve, roasted chestnuts, grapefruit marmalade and wood smoke are among the elements whose interchange command one’s attention. This finishes with great lift and refreshment, its sweetness and it’s near 16% alcohol scarcely in evidence.”
So if your Valentine, or your cellar or your taste buds merit something truly exceptional, try a bottle of Puig Parahy Rancio. Available at Joy wine and Spirits, 1302 E. 6th Avenue, Denver. 303-744-6219