Still other posts dive into pure experimentation with flavors, techniques, and food science. It's kind of a weird mix when it comes down to it, and some recipes I've attempted are probably a little too complex for the average home chef. But I cook simply too, and admire chefs than can make something seemingly simple that beguiles the wealth of knowledge and experience that went into the composition of the dish (like that meal Flying Fish). I really appreciate when two or three simple ingredients can magically meld (like sunchokes and parmesan reggiano), or when you take one great element and apply good technique to get the most out of it (like a filet that you've hand trimmed, wrapped in bacon, grilled it at a scorching 500+ degrees for a few minutes, then finished it by gently rolling it until a perfectly even medium doneness is achieved from top to bottom). On this last point, we had a simple meal of filet mignon and onion rings this weekend. While this might sound fancy, it was really cheap as Sunflower Market had tenderloin roasts on sale for $9.99 a pound (Whole Foods sells theirs for $27.99 a pound). I bought a roast for $14, 5 slices of bulk smoked bacon for $2, and a bag of organic onion rings for $3. The beauty of this meal was the technique with the filet. No seasoning apart from a sprinkle of salt; no sauces, no clever accoutrements, just steaks and onion rings.
What was still fun and blog worthy about this experience though was trimming the roast into filets and the grilling technique. I'm still figuring out how to use my filet / boning knife, but I know at this point that it's the best tool for a job like this. When trimming a tenderloin roast, you need to get rid of silverskin. With boing knife in hand I started by making a slit under the silverskin in the middle of the roast and gently used the dull end of the knife to gently pull up and back to start pulling it off. This works to a point, but the danger is tearing the filet and losing some of that precious meat for your filets. So I invert the filet with knife in place on a silicon cutting board and used the flexibility in the knife to slightly curve the cutting edge around the contour of the roast but under the silverskin. With a little patience, this really reduced lost meat and effectively rid me of the silverskin. Next I trimmed the edges of loose fat and connective tissue, and finally cut the filets. The width you are shooting for is about the length of your fist from knuckle to knuckle (this works great if you're 5'9" like me, might want to shoot for 2.5"-3" thickness otherwise), while maintaining a 3"+ diameter. You'll probably get 3 whole filets like this from a head roast, and then be left with a couple longer thinner pieces. These you will want to butterfly, which just mean you're going to create a filet that looks like the others by cutting almost through the middle of one of these long pieces and then folding it over away from the cut. Now just wrap it in bacon and secure with a toothpick. Why? Well filets are actually very lean despite their tenderness (the tenderness comes from the very limited use this muscle gets). The bacon will act as a buffer to hold in juices on the sides and indirect some of the heat to control cooking. Filets are definitely well served by dry high heat, so I cranked up the new (gently used) gas converted grill to high and got it up to 500F. The filets went on for 4 minutes a side, and then I opened the top and rolled each filet on its sides (bacon in contact with the grill), to achieve even cooking throughout the thick filets. Throughout the process I repeatedly tap under my bottom lip to remind myself of the medium doness texture, and then test each filet. As soon as one is right, it comes off the grill. I've found that subtle variations in the dimensions in a steak can create some surprises with doneness, so I never trust that just because one steak is medium that the others are as well; test every steak with your fingers, there's no substitute for this technique as touch is the best indicator across any thickness of steak. Also, don't try to completely crisp the bacon, it's just part of the cooking technique, if you get a cracklin edge here and there consider yourself lucky to have a little nuncheon, but if you go for more you'll demolish your steak in the process. For the onion rings, read the package and cook accordingly.
Whoa, a lot of typing for a piece of meat and some onion rings. So hopefully you weren't bored with the simplicity, but I can attest that in this and a plethora of other instances, simple is great.
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