Dinner for Two: Tender, Lovin’ Roast

November 8th marks my “date-iversary” with my husband. Yes, I know it seems silly but it’s important to me to recognize how long we have been together and all that we have been through. It all started in college, to multiple relocations, too many family losses, countless car rides, one sweet fur pup, a long-anticipated wedding, so many laughs and a whole lot of love in the past seven years. To celebrate all our ups and downs, this year I treated us to a beautiful beef tenderloin in a red wine reduction paired with some creamy mashed potatoes and bright lemony green beans. And it’s not a celebration without bubbles for dessert!

Roasted Beef Tenderloin with a Red Wine Reduction

Ingredients:

1.5 lb beef tenderloin, whole (do not try the cut medallion style- it does not work well)
3-4 Tbsp. butter
½ cup minced chives
2 Tbsp. soy sauce (I use reduced sodium since that’s what we use at our house)
1 tsp dry mustard powder
¾ cup of red wine
Garlic powder
Salt & pepper

Directions:

Heat the oven to 425 degrees
Get a baking dish that comfortably fits your tenderloin but not so big that there is an excess amount of room. You want the red wine reduction to pool around the meat to keep it moist and be able to ladle or baste the meat throughout the cooking process. My dish was oval which left about 1.5-2 inches of space around the tenderloin to the edge of the dish.
Give it a quick, light spray. Does not need to be thorough. Place the tenderloin in the baking dish.
Get 1 tablespoon of that butter soft and rub it all over that beautiful tenderloin- yes, the bottom and sides too. Go ahead and use a little more of soften butter if you feel like areas of the tenderloin are being cheated.
Give it a little sprinkle of garlic powder, salt and pepper over the top – it does not need much. Set the dish aside and start on the reduction.
In a small pan, sauté 2 tablespoons of butter with the ½ cup minced chives. Just get them soft, you do not want to brown or burn them.
Then add in the 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of dry mustard, and the ¾ cup of red wine. I hope you poured yourself a glass of wine at this point with what is left in the bottle. 😊
Stir gently to combine all the ingredients and get that mustard powder broken up. Tip: put the mustard powder in the soy or red wine and whisk it up before pouring into the hot pan. This keeps it from clumping when you put it directly into the hot butter and chive mixture.
Bring to a gentle boil for 1-2 minutes while stirring gently.
Pour the entire red wine reduction over the top of the tenderloin.
Put the tenderloin into the oven on the middle rack and roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
After that roast time, drop the temperature down to 350 degrees and ladle some sauce over the top of the tenderloin. You are going to cook the roast for another 20 minutes or so but in increments of 5 minutes and ladling the reduction over it after every 5 minutes. *It’s important to check the “done-ness” of the meat through the process. You never want to overcook it. Only cook it until it is medium rare/about 130-140 degrees internally since it will continue cooking while it rests in the reduction.
Once the tenderloin is done, pull it out and let it rest to soak in all the juices. I would say about ten minutes is pretty good for this smaller piece of meat to rest. While you are at it, ladle some of that reduction over the top again every few minutes to keep the meat moist and warm.
Use a cutting board that has a rim or juice catcher as to not lose any of those flavors and spill onto the counter. Be sure to cut against the grain, you do not want long strings of meat.
Plate up a few pieces along with your sides of choice (mashed potatoes are great for soaking up the left-over reduction and green beans are a fresh addition to such a rich dish) and pour some of that sauce over the top of the meat. Be quick with this step, your guest or loved one is probably watching and is ready to attack the dish haha!