Signature · 1 h 45 min, with part of the mise en place the day before · Serves 4
Malbec eye of round with pine mushrooms, brown butter purée, pickled onion and parsley oil
The classic combination of the Argentine Sunday table —meat, red wine, mushrooms and mashed potato— taken to a more careful presentation. The eye of round (peceto) with wine and mushroom sauce is kept, but the aim is a juicy meat with a caramelized surface, instead of the usual dry braised peceto.
The twist is to cook the eye of round in thick medallions, seared hard and basted in foaming butter, with a pink center. The sauce is built in two reductions, of Malbec and of stock with the soaking water of the pine mushrooms, which bring earthy notes and umami, and mounted with butter at the end. The brown butter purée adds creaminess and toasty notes; the pickled red onion gives the acidity that balances the butter and the reduction; the parsley oil, color and freshness, and a potato tuile, a crunchy contrast.
Special equipment: mandoline; blender; potato ricer or sieve; heavy pan
Ingredients
Pickled red onion
- 1 small red onion
- 80 ml red wine vinegar
- 80 ml water
- 20 g sugar
- 4 g salt
Parsley oil
- 40 g parsley leaves
- 100 ml neutral oil or very mild olive oil
- Salt, also for the blanching water
Crisp potato tuile
- 1 medium potato
- Olive oil
- Fine salt
Brown butter potato purée
- 700 g starchy potatoes
- 120 g butter
- 100–130 ml heavy cream
- 50 ml whole milk
- Salt, white pepper and nutmeg
Malbec and pine mushroom sauce
- 35–40 g dried pine mushrooms
- 300 ml hot water, to rehydrate them
- 1 large shallot, about 50 g
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 15 ml olive oil
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 500 ml good-quality Malbec
- 1 small thyme sprig
- 1 small bay leaf
- 400 ml intense beef stock
- 10 ml good-quality sherry or red wine vinegar
- Salt and black pepper
Eye of round
- 700 g trimmed center-cut eye of round
- 20 ml olive oil
- 20 g butter
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 thyme sprig
- Fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
Finishing
- 30–40 g cold butter, in small cubes, to mount the sauce
- Parsley, thyme or other herb microgreens, optional
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
Pickled red onion
- Pickling. Cut the onion into petals or small wedges. Heat the water with the vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved, pour the hot liquid over the onion and let it sit at least 30 minutes. It should keep some crunch. It keeps in the refrigerator for several days.
Parsley oil
- Blending. Blanch the leaves 15 seconds in plenty of boiling salted water, move them to ice water, drain and dry them completely. Blend 2–3 minutes with the oil and a pinch of salt, strain fine and keep cold.
Crisp potato tuile
- Baking. Slice the potato on a mandoline into very thin slices, pass them briefly through cold water and dry them perfectly. Brush with very little oil and bake between two sheets of baking paper, preferably between two trays so they stay flat, at 160–170 °C (320–340 °F) for about 15–20 minutes, until golden and crisp. Salt them right away and store in a dry airtight container.
Brown butter potato purée
- Brown butter. Cook the 120 g of butter over medium heat: it melts, foams, and then the solids take on a hazelnut color and a nutty aroma appears. Remove it from the heat right away and strain. About 90–100 g are used.
- Purée. Cook the whole unpeeled potatoes from cold salted water until completely tender. Peel them hot and pass them through a ricer or sieve; do not use a blender or food processor, because the purée turns gummy. Heat the cream with the milk. Add the brown butter to the purée and then, little by little, the hot dairy, to a very smooth, silky texture. Season with salt, white pepper and very little nutmeg. Keep hot without boiling.
Malbec and pine mushroom sauce
- Mushrooms. Cover the dried mushrooms with the hot water, without boiling, and leave them 25–30 minutes. Remove them, filter the liquid through a cloth, a coffee filter or several layers of paper towel and reserve 100–150 ml. Cut the mushrooms into irregular 1 cm pieces. Rehydrated, they keep in the refrigerator up to 24 hours.
- Base and first reduction. Cook the finely chopped shallot in the oil over medium-low heat 3–4 minutes, without over-browning. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Add the Malbec, thyme and bay leaf, bring to a gentle boil and slowly reduce to a third of the volume.
- Second reduction. Add the stock and the filtered mushroom liquid and continue reducing to 250–300 ml. Strain.
- Mushrooms in the sauce. Return the strained sauce to the pot, add the mushrooms and cook 5–8 minutes. Add the sherry vinegar and correct the salt, acidity and pepper. Do not mount it with butter if it will be reheated afterward.
Eye of round
- Portioning. Trim the roast of outer fat and membranes and cut it against the grain into medallions of 1.5–2 cm. Dry them very well with paper towels and season right before cooking.
- Searing. Heat a heavy pan very hot with the oil and sear the medallions without crowding, 60–75 seconds on the first side. Turn them, add the butter, garlic and thyme and cook 60 seconds more. Tilt the pan and baste the meat with the foaming butter for about 30 seconds. Remove and rest 3–4 minutes. It is a very lean cut: the aim is a pink, juicy center, and overcooking dries it right away.
Finishing
- Pan juices. Remove only the excess fat from the pan, without removing the caramelized bits. Add about 50 ml of the sauce, gently scrape the bottom and add this liquid to the main sauce.
- Mounting. Gently heat the sauce with the mushrooms, remove from the heat and whisk in the cold butter in cubes, moving the pot constantly until emulsified. It should be glossy, unctuous, concentrated and fluid enough to coat. Do not boil it after adding the butter.
The dish
Use wide plates of dark or neutral ceramic, warmed. Put a quenelle or a neat spoonful of brown butter purée slightly off center and set two or three medallions beside it, slightly overlapping. Distribute some mushrooms around and between the pieces, and coat the meat only partly with the sauce: the caramelized surface should still show. Add 2 or 3 petals of pickled onion, small drops of parsley oil and a potato tuile stuck upright in the purée. Finish, if you like, with a few microgreens and pepper. Final look: medallions with a toasted edge and pink center, a garnet, glossy sauce with dark mushrooms, the golden purée, the fuchsia of the onion and the green of the oil.
Key points
- Dry the meat very well and sear without crowding: the pan must stay hot to caramelize.
- Do not overcook: the eye of round is very lean and dries out right away.
- Pass the potatoes through a ricer or sieve, never a blender, so the purée does not turn gummy.
- Mount the sauce with butter only at serving and do not boil it again.
- Leave the caramelized surface visible: the sauce coats only part of the meat.
Notes
- For an even more refined version, the eye of round can be replaced with tenderloin.
- Dish profile: deeply flavored meat with a caramelized surface; Malbec and pine mushrooms with intensity, earthy notes and umami; creamy, toasty brown butter purée; pickled onion for acidity and potato tuile for crunch.