Super tender roast beef fillet served with a silky, luscious mushroom red wine sauce. The perfect show-stopping meal to impress.
When I had a big (HUGE!) fillet of beef in the fridge not so long ago, I felt completely uninspired as to what to do with it. I’m a big fan of cutting the whole fillet into steaks and then braaing them but as it’s Winter the thought of standing outside, waiting for meat to cook is not exactly my idea of fun.
I decided to go back to basics and make a beautiful roast fillet of beef but what to serve with it was another question that kept popping into my head. I wanted something rich but not too heavy and thus decided to serve it with a delicious mushroom and red wine sauce. This sauce is possibly the simplest to make but the end result is so incredibly tasty, I found myself dipping a spoon in to taste more than a few times.
For me, the key to roasting a whole fillet is to do it at a high heat so that the outside gets a beautiful brown colour whilst the inside stays soft and almost tremblingly rare. I like to mix olive oil, beef stock concentrate and Worcestershire sauce and brush this over the beef before seasoning with sea salt flakes and black pepper. I then pop the fillet into a pre-prepared oven and allow it to roast until done to my liking. I also like to add garlic and red onions to the roasting pan as they add delicious flavour and aroma which, together with the meat juices gets poured into the sauce at the last minute.
I served the fillet with the sauce, creamy, buttery mash, steamed green beans and a bottle of Shiraz which complimented the meat perfectly. A perfect Winter treat and with the overcast, chilly weather that’s been predicted for this weekend, why don’t you invite some friends over and surprise them with this beautiful meal?
Roast beef fillet with mushroom red wine sauce
Ingredients
- 2 kg beef fillet/beef tenderloin, sinew removed and ‘tail’ trimmed off
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp beef stock concentrate
- 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 red onion quartered
- 1 head of garlic halved
For the sauce
- 500 g portabellini/chestnut mushrooms quartered
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 500 ml (2 cups red wine
- 125 g (1 stick) butter cubed
- ½ cup meat juices from the roasting pan
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°c.
- Place the beef fillet in a roasting tray.
- Mix the olive oil, beef concentrate and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl and brush all over the meat.
- Season the fillet with black pepper and sea salt flakes.
- Add the quartered red onion and head of garlic and place in the oven.
- Allow to roast for 25-30 minutes until done to your liking (I like it to be quite rare but if you like it medium-well done, simply roast for longer).
- When the beef has another 10 minutes to go, start with the sauce. To make the sauce, fry the mushrooms in 2 tbsp canola/grapeseed oil until browned. Add the garlic and fry for a few seconds before pouring in the wine.
- Allow the sauce to reduce for 10-15 minutes.
- At this point the fillet should be cooked, remove from the oven, reserve the pan juices and cover the fillet with foil and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Reduce the heat and swirl in the butter. Mix well.
- Add the pan juices and allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Serve the fillet, sliced, with the sauce and accompanying dishes.
Nutrition
Biltong and Parmesan Stuffed fillet
Looks really delicious. What can i serve with it that is not starch?
You could do some steamed green beans/spinach/broccoli dressed in a zesty lemon and chilli vinaigrette or some cauliflower mash?
Beautiful! In the picture what is in the bowl? Is that the mushrooms colored with red wine? They look Ike cherries. Just wanted to make sure I was not missing anything.
Yes Danat, those are the mushrooms. They look a lot like cherries, don’t they? 😉
Oh Yes Please, two of those!
Thank You
Coming right up Hendrik. 🙂
This looks just heavenly! I can’t wait to make it.