Filet Mignon with Broccolini; Crepes Flambe

Despite the Monday holiday Melissa and I both worked a full day in the lab -- we both need to keep things moving ahead right now, and we were happy to do it. In the evening we settled in to a dinner of filet mignon with a medley of mushrooms in a white wine and dijon mustard sauce, and steamed broccolini (often sold as broccoli rabe). Melissa's filet mignon is always incredible. The beef tenderloin we get from BJs wholesale club is high quality, and we get a great price by buying a whole tenderloin and carving it up and freezing it at home. Just as important as the quality of the meat, though, is the way Melissa cooks it. After seasoning with sea salt and lots of coarse cracked peppercorns, she uses a very hot cast-iron griddle pan to sear the meat and seal in the juices, then serves it up very rare. And the mushrooms -- yumm... White wine and dijon mustard form the base of the sauce, with tarragon and a little chicken stock powder for seasoning. A 2006 Yellowtail Reserve Shiraz (AU) accompanied this dish.

Amanda showed up halfway through dinner to drop off some Gourmet magazines she thought we might want, and she got to share in the mushroom bounty. Even more exciting were the crepes Melissa decided to make for dessert. We had taken some great pics and videos of Melissa making these before, but somehow I managed to lose the files after deleting them from the camera disk. So I'm taking this opportunity to post some fresh photos. The basic crepe batter is one egg with 3/4 cup of flour and milk until the right consistency is reached. It should still be very liquid but viscous. She usually flavors the batter with a little sugar and vanilla. One ladle goes into this small non-stick pan on medium-high heat -- the flip requires a bit of finesse, but as long as the pan was well buttered it won't stick.

The really cool part is the flambe. We like a mixture of Apple Jack apple brandy with sugar that was pre-dissolved with a little water in the microwave. Abot 1/4 cup goes into the pan with a generous pat of butter, and light it up. It usually requires multiple lights to burn off most of the alcohol, but what is left behind is a syrupy, buttery, candied-brandy flavor that makes an awesome dessert.

Some marry into money, but I married into a much tastier kind of riches...