Txogitxu beef fillet with Madeira sauce and sautéed mushrooms

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 500 g beef fillet(s) (Txogitxu fillet)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 shallot(s), roughly diced
• 2 carrots, roughly diced
• 2 celery sticks, roughly diced
• 1 clove(s) garlic, quartered
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 tomato paste
• 1 sprig(s) rosemary
• 1 sprig(s) of thyme
• 3 tbsp cream
• 50 ml red wine
• 50 ml port wine
• 100 ml veal jus
• 50 ml Madeira
• 50 g butter, cold, in small cubes
• salt and pepper
• 200 g mushrooms, brown
• 25 g porcini mushrooms, dried
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil, for the mushrooms

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Rest time approx. 2 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 4 hours 40 minutes

Fillet of Basque cow

The tongue twister Txogitxu (tschogitschu) refers to the meat of the Basque cow, an animal slaughtered at an old age, which has given milk and calved several times. This meat, which is not easy to come by, is of exceptional quality. I think a high-quality sauce is a must for a fillet. This Madeira sauce is cooked as follows: Fry the shallot, garlic, celery, and carrots in rapeseed oil until they begin to brown. Stir in the tomato paste and fry briefly. Then deglaze with the port wine, add the red wine, veal jus, and herbs, and very slowly reduce to 30 ml of liquid. This takes about 2 hours. Strain everything, squeeze out the vegetables. Mix the resulting sauce with the Madeira and reduce again to at least 50 ml. Add the cream, season with salt and pepper, and thicken with the butter just before serving, without boiling. Soak the porcini mushrooms in a little warm water, fry the mushrooms relatively vigorously in the oil, turning them several times, then add the soft porcini mushrooms, fry a little longer, and then slowly add the soaking water to reduce the heat. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and reheat shortly before serving. The meat should be taken out of the refrigerator 2 hours before cooking to allow it to come to almost room temperature. Now sear the fillet on all sides in olive oil, but do not overheat, season with salt and pepper, and place it on the middle rack of a preheated 120°C oven. If you want to be on the safe side, insert a core temperature thermometer into the center of the meat. Without this aid, you’ll have to rely on experience and take the thickness of the meat into account, but I can’t give an exact time. The cooking time will be around 30 minutes, plus or minus 5 minutes. I would remove the meat from the oven when it reaches 53°C. It doesn’t need to rest at 120 degrees Celsius. I trim 1-2 millimeters off the sides to create four equal pink pieces. The thin sides are for the cook. Place 3 tablespoons of sauce on each plate, top with the meat and mushrooms next to it. As a side dish, I recommend baked or pan-fried potatoes, or a gratin made with them, along with another vegetable of your choice.