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Bison Tenderloin with Wintercress Buds and Anchovy-Ramp Sauce

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There are some recipes that make an impression, and really stick with you. This is based on one of those.

About 6 years ago I was working at the now closed Il Vesco Vino in St. Paul. It was an Italian joint, with plenty of pasta and everything you’d expect. One of the first dishes I got to make on the grill station was a deceptively simple tenderloin with mashed potatoes, half a roasted pepper, and a butter sauce made from anchovies. With only four components, it was a great example of minimalism, especially in the summer when peppers are at their finest.

By themselves, the steak, pepper and potatoes wouldn’t be anything to write home about, but the umami of the anchovy sauce brought all the components together…it was so, so good.

Plenty of people are still wary of anchovies, but if you get some high quality ones, they’re really great, and can add that extra something to a dish you just can’t put your finger on.

Since anchovies have a rich flavor, other things that are aggressive tasting compliment them, bitter broccoli raab being among my favorites. When I discovered the wild raabs/wintercress buds that grow from Barbarea vulgaris last year, I knew they would make a great addition to that old steak dish.The variation here is simple, but relies on using a couple key ingredients: gelatinous homemade stock (this adds body and helps the sauce absorb butter), high quality anchovies, and a nice cut of meat. *Nice* doesn’t have to be tenderloin though, that’s just what we originally served it with. A juicy sirloin or really any cut you enjoy would be fine too.

Homemade chicken stock

One ingredient for a great sauce: homemade stock, it should solidify when chilled.

Tenderloin is really good with punchy sauces like this though, since it is after all, the most flavorless cut on the animal. That being said though, I’ll still eat tenderloin, especially from bison.

If you’re in the Midwest, Eiktens in Center City is a great place to get buffalo products, as well as some great local gouda.

Bison Tenderloin with wintercress buds and anchovy sauce

Bison Tenderloin with wintercress buds and anchovy sauce
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Bison Tenderloin, Wintercress Buds and Anchovy-Ramp Sauce

Serves two as an entree
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Anchovy Sauce, Bison, Wintercress
Servings: 2

Ingredients

  • 2 eight ounce bison tenderloins
  • 1 cup strong homemade stock
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 2 tablespoons chopped anchovy roughly 5-6 filets
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons high heat cooking fat like lard or grapeseed oil
  • 1 small sprig of thyme optional but recommended
  • 4 ounces young mustard raabs young dandelions or broccoli raab would be a great substitute
  • 2 tablespoon sliced fresh ramp bulbs

Instructions

  • Preheat an oven to 250 degrees. Season the bison steaks all over with salt and pepper. Open some windows so you don't smoke out the kitchen.
  • Heat the lard or oil in a wide saute pan until lightly smoking (a ten inch would do). Put the steaks in the pan and press down firmly on them. Cook the steaks for a few minutes until a deep brown crust forms on one side, then flip, press down on the steaks lightly again and sear until the other side is deeply seared as well. Now repeat with the sides of the steak.
  • Transfer the steaks to a roasting tray lined with a cooling rack to prevent the steaks touching the metal and overcooking, then cook in the 250 degree oven until a thermometer reads 110 degrees (trust me on this). Remove the steaks to rest in a warm place in a pan to catch the juice the give off.

Anchovy Pan Sauce

  • Meanwhile, wipe the saute pan out with a towel to remove burnt oil, then add one tablespoon of the butter, the ramps and the anchovies. Cook, stirring occasionally until the anchovies are broken up and the ramps are lightly colored. Add the thyme sprig to the pan if using. Deglaze the pan with the wine and reduce by half, then add the stock and the juice the tenderloins have given off while resting. Heat the sauce and reduce for a few minutes more on medium heat, discard the thyme and reserve the sauce.


  • Before serving, reheat the sauce and whisk in the cold butter, allow the sauce to thicken, then double check the seasoning and adjust if needed. If necessary, flash the tenderloins in the oven for a few minutes to warm them back up a little.

Wintercress Buds

  • To cook the wintercress buds, bring a a pot of lightly salted water to a boil, then blanch them for 30 seconds or so until just wilted, remove the raabs from the water and blot on a towel for a second to remove water, since it will dilute your sauce.

Plating

  • To plate the dish, cut each tenderloin in half, then fan each out on the middle of two preheated dinner plates, arrange the raabs around them, garnish with the sauce, and serve immediately.

Notes

This is a simple entree to be part of a larger meal, serve it with a salad or a starch on the side.
Like I mentioned, It's really important to use high quality anchovies here. From my experience, expensive anchovies have more umami flavor, and less fishy funk. be on the look out at high end food stores for a variety, two great brands I like are Scalia, and Ortiz. Spanish anchovies will tend to be less fishy than Italian too, since the fish are in colder water which makes them develop less fat.
To give a tenderloin more height, I like to tie them tightly in the middle with butchers twine, since it makes them cook evenly and gives an even shape for a nice presentation.

bison tenderloin
I like to give steaks a good hard sear in a pan
bison tenderloin
As the steaks rest they will give off juice, add this to your sauce.

 

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Comments

  1. Frank

    December 4, 2015 at 4:50 pm

    Hmm. I passed Eichtens on my way to/from Franconia Sculpture Park. So I bought some tenderloin. Now I need to eat these. It’s late fall, so no ramps (although they are out there, somewhere, under the snow and soil). I grew French grey shallots. Maybe those? And for the greens? Maybe some of our kale, or I could get a raab from the grocer.

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I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. You tak I made vegan fish sauce from ramp juice. 

You take the pure juice of the leaves, mix it with salt, Koji rice, and more chopped fresh ramp leaves, then ferment it for a bit. 

After the fermentation you put it into a dehydrator and cook it at 145-150 F for 30 days. 

The slow heat causes a Maillard/browning reaction over time. 

After 30 days you strain the liquid and bottle it. It’s the closest thing to plant-based fish sauce I’ve had yet. 

The potency of ramps is a pretty darn good approximation of the glutamates in meat. But you could prob make something similar with combinations of other alliums. 

The taste is crazy. I get toasted ramp, followed by mellow notes from the fermentation. Potent and delicate at the same time. 

I’ve been using it to make simple Japanese-style dipping sauces for tempura etc. 

Pics: 
2: Ramp juice 
3: Juicy leaf pulp 
4: Squeezing excess juice from the pulp
5: After 5 days at 145F 
6: After 30 days 
7: Straining through Muslin to finish

#ramps #veganfishsauce #experimentalfood #kojibuildscommunity #fermentation #foraging
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
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