Chateaubriand. A quintessential, elegant holiday meal. One you wouldn’t necessarily think to make on a sailboat. Tonight was a special night though…the Eastport Yacht Club Parade of Lights. Our chef-guests Alyson and Jamie were bringing Focaccia Farcita, Brie and Cranberry Jalapeño Spread en Croute and Cranberry Wensleydale en croute…topped with a pastry mermaid and a galley pirate sword! That’s hard to beat. So I had to prepare something that could compliment those gourmet dishes. Chili was just not going to do it!

A Galley Pirate can always learn something from Julia Childs.  I found this in her classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This sums up a whole filet of beef nicely. You can see where the Chateaubriand cut is here. My cut was not a “pure” Chateaubriand as I also included the “bifteck” or sirloin section in my filet. Not knowing how many I was going to feed, I erred on the side of “more is better.” 

Chateaubriand with Mushroom Sauce

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2-3 lbs beef filet, Chateaubriand cut
1 tablespoon EVOO
2-3 teaspoons Alderwood smoked salt
2-3 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1+ tablespoon minced rosemary

Mushroom Sauce

2 1/2 cups finely chopped mushrooms
6 shallots, minced
2 large clove of garlic, pressed
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
1 1/2 cups of red wine
2 tablespoons of beef bouillon from a jar (or 4 cubes)
2 teaspoons of thyme
Fresh ground black pepper

Heat you galley stove to over 400º or as hot as you can get it. 

Mince the garlic and rosemary.

Rub the filet with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Place a large skillet on a medium to hot burner and let heat up until almost smoking. Sear the filet on all sides. 

Let the filet cool a bit and rub with the garlic and rosemary. Place in a roasting pan and place in your pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 120º. (I’ll admit, I like mine a little on the rare side so I will pull it out before it reaches 120º. It will continue to cook outside the oven.) While it’s roasting, make the mushroom sauce.

Chop the mushrooms, minced the shallots and press the garlic. In a large sauce pan, heat up the olive oil and butter. Mushrooms soak up a lot of oil, that’s why the generous amount of oil and butter. They also shouldn’t be crowded. The amount of moisture they put out will make them “steam” rather than fry. Sauté the 3 ingredients in the oil-butter mixture, stirring, until mushrooms turn dark brown. This will take over 10 minutes. The long heating time allows the rich flavor of the mushrooms to come through.

Once the filet is out of the oven, let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. 

Smother in mushroom sauce and serve.

The Parade of Lighting watching crew was very appreciative of the great feast of roast beast that was awaiting them. Scroll down for scenes of the 2018 Parade of Lights…