Four days, six meals of tenderloin
Rosie is still not feeling her best, she’s still not wagging her tail, had trouble getting into her chair in the morning, but she looks a little better at night. A little more comfortable, a little more interested in the kitchen and begging for our dinner again. She is clearly still struggling a little, but hopefully she keeps on this upward trend toward recovery.
Tonight’s dinner was the last night of our whole Costco beef tenderloin. Choice though, not prime, but it was still so so tender, and lean enough that I didn’t get sick of eating red meat for so many nights in a row.
We wanted to roast the tenderloin whole at 200F for about an hour and check on it, but two hours went by literally in the blink of an eye - I was translating, Noah was playing League, and I thought he’d set a timer. The thinner parts overcooked, while the thickest parts were already medium rare and a sear would have overcooked them. It was kind of a shame, but honestly the filet was so tender it was still pretty delicious despite being a little more done.
We tried to eat it in different ways so it wouldn’t get boring (for me, Noah can eat steak every day probably).
How I wish the damn greasy ass GFS plastic wrap box wouldn’t keep showing up in the pictures. And random corners of knives, paper towels. But I mean we are cluttered and this is a 写实的 blog.
The first night, after it rested out of the oven for like a solid hour, we cut off the biggest chunk, and gave it a hard sear on just one side so it didn’t overcook. While it was “resting” again, I tossed the asparagus in the same pan and some beef juice, hit it with some lemon and salt. I boiled some somen at the last second because I still want noodles at every meal if possible, and this was the most last minute quick cooking noodle I saw in the pantry at a glance. While the water was boiling for the somen, I crisped some garlic in butter and oil, and tossed in some capers as the dressing for the noodles. Seasoned the noodles with fish sauce and lemon.
I had this idea while ordering champagne for Noah’s graduation “celebration,” because there was a suggestion for beef better than bouillon paste, before we even cooked the tenderloin itself. The next morning for lunch, I infused the paste-water “broth” with “charred” pho spices, soaked and boiled (several-years-old) pho noodles from my pantry, and sliced up some onions. Most of my basil had wilted, and the only crunchy refreshing veg we had was cabbage. It didn’t really taste 100% like pho, but it definitely evoked all my satisfying and warm delicious memories of pho.
Speaking of graduation champagne, Noah graduated medical school officially and can now be called doctor! Not that he learned anything new in the past three months, but it’s very exciting, and we’re all so proud of him. I made him 2 mini cakes of the most basic bitch fancy chocolate cake because I didn’t have to think very hard making something I’ve made a thousand times: chocolate mousse with chocolate sponge and chocolate glaze. I needed something for the bottom where the glaze drips, so I candied the last of our hazelnuts too. Actually, I also made chocolate garnish that said “Noah” and “2020” and “WUSM”, but I was not confident in my tempering skills, did not try very hard to make thicker garnishes, so some broke and some looked ugly. But my chocolate was IN TEMPER! Very exciting for me.
That night, we celebrated further with more beef. I turned it into tiger cry in one easy step: making a dipping sauce. I gave fridge-cold meat a good sear on the fattier side, and whipped up a tomato nam jim jaew. I looking up the sauce to make sure I didn’t forget any ingredients, when I came across a version that put tomato in the sauce, and I was going to eat tomatoes with dinner anyway. We already had roasted rice powder, so with that, I just gave it a quick refresher toast in the skillet as it was heating up to sear the steak. One pan, one bowl, one plate meal. I think we must have eaten something else with dinner, but I forgot and it’s not nearly as exciting anyway.
Day 3’s lunch was deli sandwiches. If only our beef was still a little rare. And if we had a nice cheese. Or some pickles. But we did have mustard! And I bought sour cream and horseradish, and we had some cornichons, and Noah had made delicious rustic bread. The combination of tang, horseradish punch, and beef really reminded me of a deli sandwich, even though it probably wasn’t the best version of it possible.
For dinner, I wanted something light, and seeing our sad wilty basil reminded me of Vietnamese spring rolls. We had mint, green onion, cabbage and baby carrots, so that’s what we used. Luckily I always have frozen shrimp and rice paper. On top of that, we used up even more pantry noodles. God knows how many years old these were. We could have brought them all the way from Chicago for all I know. Even without a complete set of ingredients, it’s still one of my favorite meals. Seeing that picture just now is making me drool again.
Last night was our sixth and final meal of tenderloin.
I didn’t really have an appetite for lunch, because we were so worried about Rosie. By 8:30pm, I was pretty hungry but still didn’t feel like eating. So I googled “leftover pot roast ideas” and stroganoff came up. So I just took those flavors. Pantry pasta, finished cooking it in bouillon paste flavored water, added some baby carrots, some onion. Finished it with horseradish and sour cream. Folded in some parsley, grated a cheese that I thought was parm on top, until I found the real parm. No idea what that third hard cheese could be, cuz it wasn’t percorino either. Oh well.
While the pasta was boiling, I practically steamed cabbage in the tiniest pan, with some jangajji pickling liquid at the bottom. By the time the cabbage cooked to a nice al dente, the liquid reduced into a stickier glaze, so I called it a day. Sweet and sour cabbage, if you will. Basically a “leftovers” meal mash up of all the previous tenderloin meals.
Oh how I wish I removed that stray onion piece and wiped the rim of the metal bowl in both pictures. But such is life. By the time I’m done cooking, I’m too eager to eat to stop and take nice photos. But I’m glad I can look back on this fun tenderloin journey someday.
Today, Noah at leftover pasta, bread, and the last little chunk of steak. I ate snail ramen 螺蛳粉 with frozen vegetables. My friend introduced me to it and I’m hooked. It’s very salty, so I usually save half the sauce and boil extra noodles for dinner. The whole day, I could smell the very pungent sauce in the kitchen and was drooling the whole time looking forward to dinner.
Tomorrow, we have a chicken waiting to roast. I can’t wait to not eat beef anymore!