Oven Filet Mignon by Maya Corrigan #Recipe MLK Day

Six inches of snow and temperatures in the teens made me consider using the oven, instead of the gas grill where we usually cook meat, even when it's 40 degrees outside. I found directions for roasting a 1.5 to 2-inch filet on the Rosebud Steakhouse site. The instructions stopped me in my tracks a couple of times as I explain in the recipe below. 

But first, some side notes. 

Today we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, who preached and practiced nonviolent protest against racial discrimination.

 

Amen, Reverend King. The struggle goes on.

On a different note, words from Agatha Christie: In The ABC Murders Hercule Poirot compares various crimes to dishes on a menu. Like Poirot and Christie, all of us at the Kitchen love good food and a good murder.

Now back to today's dish. The only ingredients are filet mignon, salt, pepper, and two types of oil. The recipe is perfect for my sleuth's grandfather, who won't cook anything with more than five ingredients. The photo here shows only four ingredients because I forgot to take the picture with the olive oil included. 

Take the steak from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking so it comes to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Just before popping the filet in the oven, season the beef liberally on both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper and then lightly coat the meat with olive oil.

What does "season the beef liberally" mean? That instruction might be clear to the steakhouse chef who came up with the recipe, but not to me. I erred on the low side, figuring salt can be added later but not taken away. 

2. Heat a cast-iron or other heavy skillet at medium-high until it is hot, not smoking. Add vegetable oil. When the oil is wavy, place the filet mignon carefully in the pan. 

Oil gets wavy? Another mysterious instruction. I went online to search for an image of wavy oil and found it in a Washington Post video about shimmering oil.

3. Sear the top, bottom, and sides of the filet for 2 to 3 minutes until it looks golden-brown.

4. Put the filet in the oven. For how long? That depends on the size of the filet and your doneness preference. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature in the thickest part of the steak. Here are some rules of thumb with approximate cooking times.

Rare:120-125 degrees. Cook 4 to 6 minutes.
Medium Rare: 130-135 degrees. Cook 6 to 8 minutes.
Medium: 140-145 degrees. Cook 8 to 10 minutes.
Well-Done: 150-155 degrees. Cook 10-12 minutes.

5. Remove the filet from the oven when it’s 5 degrees below the temperature you want. It will continue cooking while it rests. Loosely cover the steak with aluminum foil for 5-10 minutes. Resting it helps retain the juices.  

I cooked the filet to medium rare.

The verdict? The filet was good but not great. I prefer beef grilled rather than baked, maybe because I marinate it for half and hour before it goes on the grill. If the weather forces me to cook a filet in the oven again, I'll marinate it first and hope it's tastier than one with just salt and pepper. Going with simple seasoning, though, is probably sufficient for the higher quality beef available to steakhouse chefs than what we get from a supermarket. 

READERS: Do you prefer to grill, pan fry, or roast meat 

or veggies?

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Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mystery series. It features a young cafe manager and her young-at-heart grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Each book has five suspects, five clues, and Granddad’s five-ingredient recipes. Maya has taught college courses in writing, literature, and detective fiction. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit her website for book news, mystery history and trivia, and easy recipes. Sign up for her newsletter there. She gives away a free book to one subscriber each time she sends out a newsletter. Follow her on Facebook.

A PARFAIT CRIME: Five-Ingredient Mystery #9

Set in a quaint Chesapeake Bay town, the latest novel in Maya Corrigan’s Five-Ingredient Mysteries brings back café manager Val Deniston and her recipe columnist grandfather – a sleuthing duo that shares a house, a love of food and cooking, and a knack for catching killers.

At the site of a fatal blaze, Val’s boyfriend, a firefighter trainee, is shocked to learn the victim is known to him, a woman named Jane who belonged to the local Agatha Christie book club—and was rehearsing alongside Val’s grandfather for an upcoming Christie play being staged for charity. Just as shocking are the skeletal remains of a man found in Jane’s freezer. Who is he and who put him on ice?

After Val is chosen to replace Jane in the play, the cast gathers at Granddad’s house to get to work—and enjoy his five-ingredient parfaits—but all anyone can focus on is the bizarre real-life mystery. When it’s revealed that Jane’s death was due to something other than smoke inhalation, Val and Granddad retrace the victim’s final days. As they dig into her past life, their inquiry leads them to a fancy new spa in town—where they discover that Jane wasn’t the only one who had a skeleton in the cooler.

Read an excerpt and see where to buy A Parfait Crime.  

Praise for A Parfait Crime

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