First big dinner in Montpellier

A few weeks ago I hosted a dinner for seven. We’d only been in Montpellier for three days so I was pretty proud of the fact that I was able to pull this off. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my new friend J who was here with her husband attending the same conference mine was.

The main course was “rôti de boeuf en croute.” Does that sound impressive or what!?! Okay, translation, “roast beef in a pastry crust. “ First I went to the local butcher. People always say to go to your "local source." I don’t know if the source of the meat was actually local, but I do know that I didn’t want to lug a chunk of meat home from some far distance on foot; the closer the better. (This was also before I became an afficionado of the Carrefour, but this meat was better than Carrefour's.)

First I explained to the butcher that I was preparing a meal for 7 adults and preparing it in a vacation rental apartment with a minimally and eclectically equipped kitchen. I knew I wanted beef. He said I needed just a little more than one kilo of “rosbif.” I was flabbergasted! Two and a half pounds of meat for seven adults, five of them men, and a couple of them big eaters; this was astonishing. I didn’t want to gainsay him so I bought the meat and figured we would have to get A LOT of vegetables to satisfy these guys. Now about the roast, first of all the color was different from what we see in the States. Here in France it is a bright red, not the bluish red I usually see. Apparently this is the result of two different practices. First French cattle are grass fed, second it is not hung to age. It is fresher than beef in the States. French beef seems to be devoid of fat except for what the butcher adds on to it. (This was very nicely done with an artistic flourish to the fat added to the top of the roast.) It doesn’t appear to be “marbled” at all.

He told me to cook it at high heat for no more than 20 minutes. I told him I was cooking it “en croute” so he said to cut back on my cooking time. Cook it just the amount of time you need for the crust to be cooked. Needless to say, this roast was going to be pretty rare! But it didn’t have that raw look, or taste, that beef in the States has when it’s cooked “rare.” It was still red but definitely tasted cooked. We had leftovers, even after some seconds! The butcher was right!

I cooked the roast "en croute" as I said. We needed crêpes and we needed puff pastry. I knew where to get the crêpes, the épicerie (small grocery store) that is open 7 days a week had some I had seen on Sunday when we arrived. So that was easy. Then we had to find puff pastry. We tried the boulangerie, alas, her husband, the baker, had just left and she didn't know where the puff pastry was. J and I were getting worried. Then we went to the "primeur"(greengrocer) and just asked. Sure enough, she had some!!! Couldn't believe it! (You see what I meant now about going from place to place when you know that Carrefour is going to have it.) While at the primeur I spotted the last of the heirloom tomatoes, some mozzarela, and a lovely basil plant. Got them all and planned a caprese salad. Also spotted some fresh cêpes (boletus for mycologists and porcini for everyone else) and got those too.

Now we were set...we thought. We got to the apartment, the two of us hauling our load in the rain (didn't I mention that?) and started setting up. I was sure I had seen some port wine in the buffet. Nope! No port wine. BUT, there was this cherry liqueur, not the grappa kind, but the sweet syrupy kind, and a quarter of a bottle of red wine. I mixed the two together and called it port wine! Worked pretty well actually.

So here's what we did:

Ingredients for the roast:
2 ½ pounds of beef tenderloin (that's the closest approximation to whatever the "rosbif" cut is here in France)
a couple of crêpes (these can be bought already made in France; you might want to make some ahead of time and just freeze them between sheets of wax paper and wrapped in foil)
a sheet of puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm is good but you need to roll it out so it's thinner)
salt and pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:
a can of beef broth
a cup and a half of port wine
dried porcini mushrooms soaked in hot water and chopped (unless you can get fresh cêpes then go for it!)
a bay leaf (bay trees grow all over the place here so I just go pick one)
flour
softened butter

Season the roast with salt and pepper. In a hot frying pan add olive oil and butter. Brown the roast on all sides about 3 minutes per side. Take it out of the pan and let it return to room temperature. Wrap it in the crepes. These will absorb the extra juices and allow the puff pastry to rise. Now wrap the roast in the puff pastry. Try to be artful about it but don't let it overwhelm you. Roast at 450 °F for about 25 minutes. Make sure the pastry doesn't burn! Oh, forgot, if the roast is tied, untie it before wrapping it.

While the meat is cooking pour the beef broth and "port wine" in a saucepan and add the bay leaf. Reduce down to about half. Remove the bay leaf.

Strain (keeping the liquid) the mushrooms and dice them up. Strain the mushroom liquid through a wet paper towel. Add the liquid to the sauce.

If you're lucky enough to find fresh cêpes, wash them very well (go ahead and use water! they're dirty! you're going to use them right away, right? after all, Jacques Pepin washes his mushrooms!) dice them up and sauté in butter (no olive oil) just pour the whole thing into the sauce, don't strain anything!

Make a beurre manié (combine a bit of flour to softened butter). Add the beurre manié to the sauce and whisk until thickened.

Now make a big deal out of presenting this roast at the table. After all, you have pulled something off here!!! I'm lucky, my DH made a big deal for me. I really do like him. You can carve it right at the table or go back into the kitchen and do it there.

The wine flowed freely and so did the conversation. J and I are well weathered (yeah, it's a pun) scientist spouses and we both enjoy the technical stuff so it's just great.