Filet Mignon with Farro, Wild Garlic, and Sweet Corn
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This recipe for filet mignon with farro, wild garlic, and sweet corn two ways combines a number of flavors, textures, and cooking techniques to create a special dinner for two.
Though the entire dish is interesting, the most unique element on this plate, by far, is the wild garlic (allium vineale). Here, I have pickled the wild garlic to add a tangy freshness to the plate, but you could present it another way—simply sautéed or grilled, perhaps?—if you prefer. What is wild garlic? Glad you asked, because this can be a little confusing. Wild garlic (allium vineale) goes by many names: wild garlic, field garlic, crow garlic, onion grass, wild onion, stag’s garlic, and probably a few more that I haven’t listed. It is native to Europe, parts of Africa, and the Middle East, but has been spread to other parts of the globe, including Australia and the United States, where is it commonly viewed as a noxious weed due to its proliforation. This is unfortunate, because the plant produces clusters of small bulbs that have a distinct and delicious garlic/onion aroma and flavor. There are many resources for those who wish to forage their own wild garlic. Here are some that The Farmer-Gourmand has on his own bookshelf:
- Katie Letcher Lyle, The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts
- Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Wild Asparagus
- Leda Meredith, Northeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Beach Plums to Wineberries
- Debbie Naha-Koretzky, Foraging Pennsylvania and New Jersey
What if you don’t have access to wild garlic? To parody a popular celebrity chef: if you can’t forage your own wild garlic, store-bought is fine. Spring/green onions, cippolini onions, or pearl onions from your local grocery store can be pickled in the same fashion as the wild garlic I use here. There is one caveat: the larger the allium, the longer it should stay in the pickling brine. So, leave anything other than wild garlic and very small spring/green onions in the brine a day or two longer before making this dish. Fantastic.
This dish also contains farro—a perennial favorite of The Farmer-Gourmand, and used in prior recipes here, here, and here—that is simply cooked in beef stock and enriched with a bit of butter at the end. My recipe doesn’t call for salt to be added, as there is already salt in the beef stock and I find this is sufficient, but if you want it a bit saltier, by all means, add some salt.
While on the subject of salt, I should mention that this dish uses a particular kind of salt for the final seasoning of the filet mignon: Maldon salt. It isn’t required, but it does really add a certain je ne sais quoi to the dish. What’s so special about Maldon salt? Well, consider the answer on the company’s website: “Maldon Salt’s irregular and distinctive pyramid shape is what makes it so special. In addition to the unique tactile texture, our pyramid salt flakes release saltiness with sweet precision, bringing a clean and delicate flavour.”
My recipe for filet mignon with farro, wild garlic, and sweet corn also instructs that the meat should be cooked sous vide and then finished in a pan. Though not strictly necessary (you could roast the meat in an oven until it reaches the desired level of doneness and then finish it in a pan), having a sous vide machine certainly makes cooking something as precious as a filet mignon easier. The results are better, too, as it ensures that the meat is not overdone and/or dry. As the physical chemist and gastronome Hervé This explains in Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor, “as long as foods are cooked over gentle heat, the results do not greatly vary: Meats remain remarkably tender and juicy because their juices have not evaporated.” So, if you don’t already have one, you should get a sous vide machine. I use this one.
Another good tip for cooking any kind of meat is to let the meat rest after cooking and before carving and serving it. Why? Again, Hervé This explains for us: “the cooked center [of a piece of meat] loses more juice while resting than do the peripheral parts (which, having already been dried out, are less likely to lose any). Letting the meat rest there does redistribute juices from the center outward so that the outer parts regain their tenderness.”
This dish contains two sweet corn elements: grilled sweet corn and a sweet corn sauce. Grilled sweet corn is self-explanatory: shuck the corn, coat it in oil, and grill it until charred. The sweet corn sauce is similarly straightforward and calls for you to cook some sweet corn in stock, purée it, and add some whipping cream and gelatin. Neither element is difficult, though I will admit that cutting the grilled corn off of the cob and keeping it intact is not for the faint of heart. In the alternative, you could serve the corn whole on the cob on the side of the plate.
Enjoy!
Filet Mignon with Farro, Wild Garlic, and Sweet Corn
Ingredients
- Sous Vide Filet Mignon
- 2 filet mignon about 6 ounces each
- 2 tablespoons duck fat or vegetable oil
- Wild garlic tops for garnish optional
- Microgreens and/or edible flowers for garnish optional
- Maldon or other salt, to taste
- Pickled wild garlic
- 8 ounces of wild garlic white parts only, cleaned and trimmed (See Note)
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 black peppercorns
- 4 juniper berries crushed
- 2 allspice berries
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme
- Sweet Corn Sauce
- ¾ teaspoon gelatin
- ⅔ cup chicken or vegetable stock divided
- 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
- ½ cup whipping cream
- Salt and white pepper to taste
- Grilled Sweet Corn
- 2 ears of sweet corn husked and cleaned
- Olive oil as needed
- Salt to taste
- Farro in Beef Stock
- ½ cup rinsed farro
- 4 cups beef stock
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- The day before, make the pickled wild garlic. Add all ingredients, except the wild garlic, to a pan and stir until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for 20 minutes. Add the garlic and, once at room temperature, refrigerate overnight.
- Set the sous vide machine for 130℉. Season the filets and vacuum seal in separate bags according to the manufacturer’s directions for “dry” ingredients. Cook for 1 hour. While the filet mignon cooks, prepare the other elements.
- Make the farro. Bring the stock to a boil and add the farro, then reduce the heat to medium-high and boil, uncovered, until the farro is soft, about 30 minutes. Drain and return the farro to the pot. While hot, add the butter and toss to combine. Keep warm.
- Prepare the sweet corn sauce. Dissolve the gelatin in one-third of a cup of the stock; set aside. Bring the remaining stock to a boil and add the corn; cook for 5 or so minutes and remove from the heat. Purée with a stick blender or in a countertop blender until smooth. Thoroughly stir in the gelatin-stock mixture. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve or strainer, season to taste, and cool. Set aside.
- Heat grill on high for 10 minutes. Brush the corn with oil and place on the grill. Grill, turning as necessary, until charred all over, or for approximately 15 minutes. Remove the corn from the grill and allow to cool enough to handle. Carefully cut off portions of the kernels, with the goal being to keep sections of the kernels stuck together. (In the alternative, serve the corn whole on the cob on the side of the plate.) Delicately set aside.
- Remove the beef from the sous vide bags and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Heat the fat or oil in a large skillet over high heat until it smokes, then add the beef and sear on each side for about 30 seconds (but no more than 1 minute) until well-browned. Remove beef from the pan and rest on a wire rack for five minutes.
- Plate the dish. Place a 3–4 inch ring mold off-center on each plate and fill with the farro. Carefully place a portion of the grilled corn on the farro with a spatula. Dot the top of the farro with the pickled wild garlic, microgreens (if using), and some pieces of wild garlic stems (optional), trimmed and placed vertically into the farro. Slice the filet mignon, season with salt, and place on each plate next to the farro. Remove the ring mold. Add some of the sweet corn sauce to both plates. Serve at once.
Notes
