Tournedos with vigneronne sauce and croutons

Steps

for the croutons

• Peel the shallot and chisel it finely
• Wash and chisel the parsley
• Dice the soft sandwich bread in dice of 1cm
• Heat-up a pan
• Add the olive oil
• Add the dices of bread and gently stir constantly until they change color and become a bit golden brown
• Remove croutons from heat
• Clean-up the pan and heat it up again
• Add the shallot and stir constantly without any oil until it starts to shine
• Add the olive oil and stir until it becomes a bit brown
• Add the croutons and stir
• Add the parsley and stir
• Add salt and pepper and stir a last time
• Put aside

for the vigneronne sauce

• Peel and chisel very finely the shallot
• Remove the skin of the mushroom and slice it in very small cubes
• Heat-up a small sauce pan
• Add the shallot and stir constantly without any oil until it starts to shine
• Add the olive oil and stir in the shallot until it changes color and becomes slightly brown
• Add the mushroom and stir constantly until it reveals it’s characteristic aroma
• Add the cognac and stir constantly until the alcohol evaporates and reveals its aroma
• Add the red wine and stir
• Add the thyme and the bay leaf and stir
• Stir constantly with a whisk until the sauce reduces at half
• Add the veal stock
• Stir in constantly with the whisk until the sauce reduces at least in half, you should continue stirring until you have the consistency you like
• Pass the sauce through a sieve to retain shallot, mushroom, thyme and bay leaf, and keep only the liquid part
• Add the cold butter and stir with the whisk to make it melt
• Add salt and pepper and stir
• The sauce is ready!

for the tournedos

• Preheat the oven at 180°C
• Heat-up a pan
• Add the olive oil
• Place the meat into the pan and cook it in both sides for 1’-2’
• Add the clove of garlic (smashed) and the thyme
• Stir in the tournedos with the thyme and the garlic to reveal all aromas
• Add salt and pepper
• Place the tournedos, the garlic and the thyme into a pan going into the oven or leave it in the initial pan if it can go into the oven
• Place it into the oven and cook for 6’
• Get it out of the oven and bring everything together

to bring everything together

• Heat-up the croutons again into a pan
• Heat-up the sauce, without burning it
• Place the tournedos into a dish (without the surrounding fat)
• Pour the sauce on top
• Place the croutons on top
• Taste it asap!
• So good!!!

Inspiration

The recipe of Tournedos with shallots, vigneronne sauce and candied potatoes in the book:

• Ritz Escoffier Paris. 100 leçons de cuisine de l’École Ritz Escoffier, Éditions de La Martinière, Paris, 2016, p.55

(*) if you don’t have shallots, you can use onion but you will need to adjust quantities, the taste though is different, I might say more mild!