After a particularly rough week this past May, This Guy I Know had taken the toll of my stress and I decided to make him a special dinner to show my remorse and appreciation for him putting up with me.
I decided to make him bacon wrapped fillet mignon with a Gorgonzola butter sauce, twice baked potatoes and roasted asparagus with goat cheese sauce.
Bacon Wrapped Fillet with Gorgonzola Butter Sauce
This is one of those dishes where the name of the dish will impress your guests and you will be impressed with yourself at how easy it was to cook!
You will need:
- 2 inch thick cut of fillet mignon per person
- 2 slices of bacon, per person
- Butter
- Gorgonzola Crumbles
- Salt and Pepper
1. Cook the bacon in a skillet, preferably a cast iron. You want the bacon to be partially cooked, but not crispy, because you are going to wrap it around the fillet.
2. Season your fillet with salt and pepper on both sides, that is it, you don't need to marinate or smother this meat in seasoning.
3. Wrap your cooked bacon around the fillet and secure with toothpick or cooking twine.
4. Sear both sides of your fillet in your bacon grease. If you need too, add a turn of EV olive oil to the pan. Cook it just long enough for the outside to get a nice color, about 3 minutes on each side.
5. If you have a cast iron skillet, throw it under the broiler. If you don't, use a broiler pan. Make sure to keep the oven door cracked open while you broil, otherwise you will just steam your meat. You should broil it for 2 minutes to get medium rare and about 5 minutes to get the center to be medium.
Gorgonzola Butter Sauce
This is so simple you will wonder why you don't make it every night.
1. Soften some butter in a dish
2. Crumble the Gorgonzola into the butter
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
4. Place the butter in the refrigerator to let it set up
Top your fillet with this butter, you can either let the heat from the fillet melt the butter or you can add it during your last minutes of broil time to really get it bubbly!
Twice Baked Potatoes
I love making these because you can throw anything in them and they will taste great, you can go for the traditional baked potato "all the way" with cheese, bacon and sour cream or you can go savory and mix in garlic, chives and Boursin cheese.
1. Bake your potatoes for 1 hour at 350 (if you are in a time crunch you can microwave your potato for 5 minutes on each side)
2. Let the potato cool down before you try and work with it, then cut it in half and scoop out the insides into a bowl, saving the skins.
3. Mix your potato insides with your choice of mixins. I used sour cream, a little bit of milk, cheddar cheese, bacon pieces, salt and pepper.
4. Spoon your mixture back into the skins and top it with more cheese, bacon and scallions.
5. Bake the skins for 15 minutes at 350 to let the cheese melt.
Please see my entry "We are Family" for the roasted asparagus with a goat cheese sauce recipe.
This meal may sound intimidating, but it is one that I would recommend to celebrate any special occasion! What better way to say "I am sorry for being a brat for the past 4 days" then with bacon wrapped meat!
