Stuffed beef fillet with prunes on red wine gingerbread sauce with mini dumplings and Brussels sprouts

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 750 beef fillet(s)
• 80 g prunes, pitted
• some salt and pepper
• 30 ml peanut oil
• 120 g shallot(s)
• 15 g butter
• 20 g tomato paste
• 300 ml red wine, dry
• 600 ml gravy
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 40 ml port wine, red
• 2 tsp gingerbread spice
• some apple syrup
• some salt
• 150 g shallot(s)
• 15 g butter
• 250 g pretzel(s), stale
• 200 ml milk
• 200 g whipped cream
• ½ bunch thyme
• 2 large egg yolks
• some flour
• some salt
• some white pepper, freshly ground
• 600 g Brussels sprouts
• 80 g pancetta
• 20 g butter
• some salt and pepper
• some nutmeg, freshly grated

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 75°C (fan oven). Rinse the beef fillet, pat dry, and for the filling, pierce a hole lengthwise through the center with a sharpening steel. Press the prunes into the fillet and season with salt and pepper. Heat the peanut oil in a roasting pan and sear the fillet all over. Then remove it from the pan, place it on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil, and cook in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours. For the sauce, peel the shallots, finely dice them, and sauté them in the butter in the roasting pan until translucent. Then add the tomato paste and roast it. Deglaze with a little red wine. Repeat this process until all the red wine has been used up and the sauce base is a nice, shiny brown. Then top up the sauce base with the meat juices, bring to a boil, and reduce by half. Mix the starch with the port wine until smooth, stir into the simmering sauce, and let it simmer for about 2 minutes. Then pass it through a fine sieve and stir the gingerbread spice into the sauce, season with a little apple syrup and salt. For the mini dumplings, dice the pretzels very finely. Peel and finely dice the shallots. Heat the butter in a saucepan and sauté the shallots until translucent. Then mix them with the pretzel cubes in a bowl. In the same saucepan, bring the milk and whipped cream to a boil, then pour over the pretzel and shallot mixture. Let it steep for about 10 minutes. Rinse the thyme, shake dry, and chop the leaves. Add it to the dumpling dough along with the egg yolks and a little flour, season with salt and freshly ground white pepper, and knead well. Then, with moistened hands, form about 12 small dumplings and chill them for about 30 minutes. Wash and trim the Brussels sprouts, and make a cross-shaped cut along the stalk. Cook the Brussels sprouts in boiling, lightly salted water for about 12 to 15 minutes. Then drain and let them drain. For the mini dumplings, bring a large amount of water to a boil in a pot and add a little salt. Add the mini dumplings (the water should be just below boiling point) and let them simmer for 10 minutes. Finely dice the pancetta. Melt the butter in a pot (it can be the same one you used to cook the Brussels sprouts in) and fry the bacon until crispy. Then add the Brussels sprouts, heat through, and season with salt, pepper, and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Heat the sauce for the meat again. Slice the meat and serve with the sauce, mini dumplings, and Brussels sprouts.