Eye fillet, mushroom Duxelle, goats cheese, herbs
A perfect dinner for date night — it’s French inspired and would go beautifully with a bottle of light red.
Mushroom Duxelle is a flavorful mushroom “paste” that is made by cooking down swiss brown mushrooms with thyme, butter and shallot.
Serves 6.
Ingredients:
Eye fillet steaks, 1 per person
1 tbsp butter, unsalted
few sprigs of thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed with skins on
Salt and pepper
Handful of microgreens
Pan juices from searing the steak, to pour over the steak
Mushroom Duxelle:
2 cups swiss brown mushrooms, rinsed and dried
2 shallots, quartered
few sprigs of thyme
4 tbsp butter, unsalted
Salt and pepper
Herbed Goats Cheese:
150g goats chevre
Handful of chives, chopped
Handful of dill, chopped
Squeeze of fresh lemon, about 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper
Method:
Prepare the herbed goats cheese by folding in all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. It is easier to fold if the goats cheese isn’t very cold, so just let it sit out of the fridge for 5 minutes first. Leave in the fridge while you cook.
In a food processor, blitz mushrooms (stems included) with shallots until a crumbly texture forms. Add to a frying pan with 4 tbsp butter over medium heat. Add thyme and salt and pepper. Cook down for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If any pieces start to stick to the pan, deglaze with cognac or water. It’s done when the texture is like a paste, spreadable and about 1/4 of the original size.
Generously season both sides of the steaks with salt and pepper. Leave out at room temperature for 10 minutes while the pan is getting super hot. To a fry pan over high heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil and allow it to get so hot that it starts to smoke. Add steaks and sear on the first side for about 1-2 minutes, then flip and add butter, garlic and thyme. Spoon the infused butter over the steaks, basting them with the garlic and thyme infused butter for 1-2 minutes (depending on the thickness of your steak, mine was super tall!). Cook to medium rare and take off the heat to rest for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain.
To assemble, add a spoonful of herbed goats cheese and spread onto the plate. Do the same with a spoonful of mushroom duxelle, keeping them centered on the plate. Fan the steak slices over the top of both the goats cheese and mushrooms, then spoon over the pan juices from slicing the steak and any residual sauce in the pan. Garnish with microgreens and flakey salt.
