The November issue of Saveur had a tasty and interesting looking recipe called Coffee-Crusted Beef Tenderloin. Because I'm dieting again and need to cook every day in order to know what I eat, a lean tenderloin suited my needs perfectly. The recipe called for coffee, which I love, but also three kinds of chillies, guajillo, ancho and chipotle. In Finland it's quite difficult to find anything but Dutch or Israeli grown "green chillies" or "red chillies", and the packages never say what kind of chilli is inside. For most people that is fine, as they only want to spice up their food a little, but a foodie like me could use the name of the species.
Anyhow, the hunt for the right chillies gave me an excuse to spend my lunch hour wandering round the specialty food shops of Helsinki. After a frustrating search I had to settle for those dang "Dutch red chillies", the closest thing I could find to mirasol, which is what guajillo is called when fresh. Anchos are made by drying poblanos, round green chillies about the size of a golf ball. They are not very hot, and are used to add a mild heat. The closest thing to poblanos I could find was a basket full of habaneros. As many of you know, they are really, really hot. Since I had no chipotles either (only Chipotle Tabasco), I decided to let the habaneros stand in for those too. That turned out a good decision for the dish, but not so much for S.
With the proper chillies missing, I had to adapt the recipe to what I could find. For the sauce I used four stemmed and seeded red chillies, half a habanero and a lot of Chipotle Tabasco. I wore disposable gloves the whole time I was preparing it, and when the sauce was boiling on the stove the fumes actually made my lungs feel weird. So I found it really odd when S came home and tasted the sauce. She didn't find it hot at all, and ended up eating it by the spoonful. By then I felt stupid for having worn gloves to handle those "hot" habaneros, and I decided to roast the other one and a half habaneros in the oven with the tenderloin. We even took a tiny bite of them before cooking, and they didn't taste that hot.
When everything was ready, I kindly offered S one of the roasted habaneros, and she happily accepted. Roasted bell peppers are super good too, you know... Well, thirty seconds later she came back to the kitchen, desperately looking for milk, and then the uncontrollable drooling started. I was too afraid to take pictures, but you can get a pretty good idea by taking a look at this guy.
Without further ado, here is the original recipe from Saveur, without my substitutions. The beef itself wasn't hot at all, by the way!
Recipe card
Coffee-Crusted Beef Tenderloin
- Serves 6
- Soaking the chillies about 30 min
- Simmering the sauce about 45 min
- At room temperature 30 min
- Oven 200 °C (400 °F), then 105 °C (225 °F)
- Internal temperature 58 °C (135 °F)
- Resting 15 min
You will need
| 1 | beef tenderloin, about 1.5 kg (3 lb) |
| 4 | guajillo chillies, stemmed and seeded |
| 2 | ancho chillies, stemmed and seeded |
| 4 | cloves of garlic, chopped |
| 250 ml (1 cup) | water |
| 2 | chipotle chillies in adobo |
| 1/2 | small white onion |
| 2 tbsp | light brown sugar |
| 2 tbsp | red wine vinegar |
| 3/4 tsp | pepper |
| 2 tbsp | extra virgin olive oil |
| 2 1/2 tsp | coarse sea salt |
| 3 tbsp | finely ground coffee |
| 1 tbsp | cocoa powder |
| 1/8 tsp | ground cinnamon |
Method
- Toast the guajillo and ancho chillies over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. Soak them in 250 ml (1 cup) of warm water until soft, about 30 minutes.
- Purée the chillies, the soaking water, the garlic, the chipotles in adobo and the onion until smooth. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan, add the purée and simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes. Add the sugar, vinegar, 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Simmer for another 15 minutes or until thickened. Let cool.
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F).
- Rub the tenderloin with olive oil, salt and pepper. Brush it all over with the sauce, saving the remainder for another use. Mix the coffee, cocoa powder and cinnamon together, and roll the tenderloin in the mixture until completely covered. Let the tenderloin sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Roast the tenderloin for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 105 °C (225 °F) and continue roasting until the internal temperature at the thickest part reaches 58 °C (135 °F).
- Let rest for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.
5 comments
You're supposed to be NICE to your gf, Antti:) Anyway, your post reminds me of an episode when my pikkusisko decided to eat a whole green chilli pepper she found in my mum's greenhouse. It almost killed her!
I've got all those listed chillies (dried though) in my cupboard, as I stocked up on various goodies just before leaving Edinburgh. I thought of making mole, but there should be plenty for a coffee-crusted beef tenderloin, too..
Onpas mukavaa, että tämäkin päivittyy taas toisinaan!
Oisit pyytäny siskolta apua. Mullon ainakin meksikolaisia anchoja ja pasilloja sekä kahta eri versiota chipotleista. Riittää siis sullekin.
ZZ
Pille, Anna: it's good to know there are helpful women around with dried chillies 🙂 What comes to "poisoning" S, that was a 100% accident 😀
Saara: joo, jostain löytyi taas inspiraatio... Nyt joulun lähestyessä töissäkin on rauhallisempaa niin energiaa jää vähän harrastuksillekin 🙂