Despite what you might think, I actually do cook food from time to time. The last couple of months have been really hard on my schedule and while I’m not saying I’m out eating, I don’t usually find it necessary to document my late night omelettes, turkey sandwiches or the occassional bowl of cereal! :)

I recently gave some advice to a co-worker about how I like to cook a filet mignon. When he came back to me the next morning he told me that his filet was a bit tough and that his meat really stuck to the pan. It was then at this point that I remembered all the caveats that I didn’t tell him.

He went out and purchased an iron cast skillet. I told him to use a skillet with a metal handle or something that could handle heat up to 400 degrees. I have an All-Clad skillet that I use for my filet mignons. The skillet he bought wasn’t pre-seasoned. This caused alot of the sticking that he experienced. The next issue was the fact that it was cast iron. Cast iron conducts and holds heat way longer than any stainless steel skillet.

When I start my filet mignon, I preheat the pan with about 1-2 tablespoons of oil. While the pan is heating I season my filet. I only use kosher salt and pepper and I season liberally. I also make sure my meat is at room temperature and not striaght out of the fridge. Once I see that my pan is just getting to the smoking point (I can see the oil “rippling” in the pan and see small whips of smoke here and there) I place my filet in the pan. Once I put it in I don’t touch for it at least 1.5 minutes. At that point, the filet should release by itself and I flip it over. I’m not looking to blacken it just get good color. The instructions I gave my friend was to leave it in for about 2-3 minutes (in my head I was thinking it was med-high heat – when in fact I keep my heat on high). His beef almost blackened and started to cook the beef on that side. The cast iron retained all the heat and provided a hotter surface than I had anticipated. He had sticking problems but managed to release it and flip it over. It was almost black.

My next set of instructions was to flip it and then put it in a pre-heated 375 degree oven. I leave it in the over for about 5 minutes. This gives me just enough time to mince some shallots and get my mushrooms sliced for my sauce. I gave him the hand test method to check for doneness, but asked him to but a thermometer for his beef. I told him i like mine to finish at 125, medium rare. I offered that I usually will take my meat out at 120 as it will continue to cook even outside of the oven. Again, because of his cast iron his beef ended up cooking in the 5 minutes it was in the oven. Based on what he told me, his beef ended up being medium to medium well.

Once I was done with my veggies, I took my beef out of the oven and placed it on a plate a covered it with foil. Meanwhile I cooked my shallots and mushrooms, added my broth and wine and made myself a nice sauce. After about 10 minutes I had a nice med-rare filet with a red wine sauce, 1/2 of a baked potato from the night before and some asparagus I put in the oven while I cooked down the sauce. The asparagus simply had olive oil, salt and pepper.

My friends filet wasn’t a total bust, he said it tasted good, but that it was a bit tough. The next day we talked about it and how the factor of how cast iron vs stainless steel can make a difference. I then told him how to season his pan and how over time that an will be the best non-stick skillet he’ll have in his kitchen.