Sauces

Beef Tenderloin with Cherry Merlot Sauce

November 30, 2015

cherry

I am hosting a small dinner party.  The table is decorated from the holiday and the china is still out, so I decide to keep it fancy for this gathering.

I start with beef tenderloin.  It has been a while since I have cooked this, super easy, but super fabulous. I found one already trimmed at Costco for a reasonable price (for future reference Black Friday is dead at Costco – great time to get shopping done).  Since I am using a flavorful sauce, I go extra simple with the meat. I tie up the roast every 2″ and add a little olive oil and salt throw it on a roasting pan in the oven 400 degrees until it gets to an internal temp of 145 ( I let it sit for about 20 min before serving).

My Cherry Merlot sauce (compliments of Chef Lisa Stalvey) calls for 2 sticks of butter.  It is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I really can’t be putting 2 sticks of butter in a sauce….I need to lighten this up.  I add a package of dried cherries, a little (1 cup) Merlot, a little balsamic, a little rosemary (recently dried from my garden) a couple tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper to a saucepan over medium heat until reduced and thickened.  It was very sweet and wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so a threw in a 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (much better!)  I’m not adding a recipe here…everything to taste!

Love this sauce….Oh and the meat was perfectly cooked able to cut with a butter knife.  I wish I had more pictures (yum).

 

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