Beef Fillet with Mushroom and Red Wine Sauce

Although I don’t drink wine, I really love cooking with red wine. The red wine brings out all the best flavours of meat, especially with beef. To me, it was a successful experiment of cooking beef fillets topped with red wine sauce using this Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 because this dish completely pleased my whole family in 2000. Well, this red wine was a gift from a travel agent when I bought air-tickets for my family back to Hong Kong. I stored the red wine in my pantry immediately after taking from the travel agent and didn’t touch it until now.

I can’t describe how delicious this red wine sauce was. The sour taste of Balsamic vinegar cut through the beef making you feel more craving. So be cautious!

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 steak fillets
• 1 onion, shredded
• 250 gm button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 Tbsp parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp thyme, chopped

• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• 1/4 cup chicken stock (or beef stock)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp seeded mustard
• 3 Tbsp thickened cream
• A pinch of black pepper

Thickening:

• 1 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1 Tbsp water

Seasonings:

• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp mustard

Method:

1. Rinse steak fillets and drain well. Absorb moist with kitchen paper. Marinate with the seasonings for 15 minutes. Set aside.
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a frying-pan. Sauté onion until translucent. Add crushed garlic and mushrooms. Cook until all ingredients soften. Stir in parsley and thyme.
3. Pour in red wine, chicken stock and Balsamic vinegar. Bring it to a boil. Slow heat to low and simmer.
4. While cooking red wine sauce, heat up a non-stick pan. Add oil and cook marinated steak fillets to your preferred doneness. Place on a warm plate, covered.
5. Turn up the heat to high and cook red wine sauce. Add seeded mustard, black pepper and cream. Bring it to a boil. Stir in thickening and cook to your preferred consistency. Pour sauce onto the cooked steak fillets. Serve hot.