Okay, I know that it is called Grilled Venison Tenderloin, but it also suggested beef or pork as a substitution and guess what my freezer is full of? I chose beef. We have these lovely tenderloins we had cut up from a mass quantity buy from Sam's Club. I thought that would taste much better than Venison.
My thought was to make the sesame soy sauce and grill the tenderloin Wednesday night. The tenderloin needed thawing, however, so I started with the sauce. After the sauce had come together, the meat was still frozen, so I looked over the cheese and mushroom sandwich recipe. I thought I could toast the bread (or saute it, as the recipe instructed).
The instructions said to slice the french load into 6 pieces that will fit into your baking dish, but they did not indicate what size the dish should be. I started with a 9x13 but decided that there was no way 6 slices would even come close to fitting in there. I switched out to a 12x15 pan. I could only fit 5 pieces in there, and they were thicker than the edge of the pan. I was concerned that the sauce would ooze out over the top of the pan and make an even bigger mess in my already-messy oven. I decided to slice the bread even thinner. I had originally cut the loaf in half the long way and cut each half into three pieces. After I switched out the pan, I sliced the bread the long way again, making thinner pieces. Maybe the cookbook author had skinnier bread or something - I was only able to fit 5 across my pan. Also, 2 tbsp of butter wasn't nearly enough butter to "saute" both sides of 5 slices of bread. The other issue I had was that I was unable to saute more than two slices at a time in my frying pan. I suppose I could have used a larger pan, but where is the fun in that?
After I had sauteed the mushrooms and green onions, the next step was to make the sauce, which started with a roux. I had used the rest of the butter that was in my butter dish for the mushrooms. I opened the refrigerator to grab some more butter, but there wasn't any where I thought it should be. I pushed some items around to see if the extra sticks were hiding behind some leftovers. I couldn't believe I was out of butter! How could that be? I double-checked the freezer downstairs - no luck.
I was at an impasse. I was either going to have to go back out into the world (something I am loathe to do once I have returned from work) or find some alternative solution. I looked around. I peeked into the freezer again. There was lard. Could I use lard? I wasn't sure about that. I looked back at my neglected pan. Next to it was a coffee mug. I peered inside. Sure enough, there was a pile of bacon grease in that mug. My husband feels it necessary to save bacon grease whenever he makes bacon, because he could use it later for numerous other applications. Perhaps this was one of them.
I plopped a few wads of the stuff into my pan. I estimated the four tablespoons the recipe recommended and followed the instructions as if it were butter in the pan. I was using Wondra for the flour, because I have had really good luck with incorporating that into sauces without fear of lumps. I ended up using more than 3 tablespoons, because it wasn't getting "paste-y", like the instructions indicated it should. I figured it was because I was using bacon grease instead of butter. Maybe it has a different chemical make-up that doesn't allow it to thicken up as easily as butter. Once I was satisfied with the consistency, I went ahead and added the half-and-half and finished off the sauce. It still wasn't as thick as I thought it should be, but I was afraid if I added more flour, it would taste chalky. It looked somewhat thick, and I assumed that it would thicken more after cooling. I set the pan aside to cool.
At this point, I was completely exhausted and looking forward to sitting down in front of the television with my husband, some dinner, and my new temporary kitty. I cleaned up a few items, and then I realized: the tenderloin was still in the microwave, thawing. I hadn't cooked it yet. I bargained with my husband. I told him I would fix dinner, if he would go outside and grill my tenderloin for pizza night. He agreed and headed outside. He is definitely a keeper. I fried a couple of eggs and threw some frozen hash browns and called it good. Pam arrived Thursday with a bag full of Zestar apples she had purchased from her mailman. His apple stand wasn't open when she wanted the apples (she was leaving for a training weekend for a flying group she belongs to and wanted to bring them with her to share), so she tracked the man down and asked him to sell her some apples anyway. I was happy that she did. We cut one open and shared it between us sisters and Jeff (we didn't want to spoil our appetites for the main event). It was fantastic - sweet, tart, juicy, and delicious.
Jennifer appeared with her kids and promptly put a frozen pizza in the oven. She was going to have to drop Jonah off at his football practice at seven, and both he and Gracie needed to be fed before this was going to happen.
I spread the now-super-thick mushroom cream sauce over the toasted french bread, sprinkled it with cheese, and was ready for it to go into the oven, but the directions said that it was only going to take about 10 minutes and I hadn't even started the grill. I didn't want it to be done inside, in the oven, while I was outside, grilling the tenderloin pizza.
I also didn't want to go outside when I was so THIRSTY. I started in on the drink of the week. The "seasonal" berries of choice were strawberries. However, in hindsight, I think for the drink to be called Purple Haze, it should have been some other kind of berry - blueberry, blackberry, mulberry, etc. Our drink looked like a fluffy daiquiri. It was sweet and fruity.
Jennifer and I headed out to the grill with the tenderloin fixings and our drinks. We stood outside in front of the grill, hoping some of the warmth of the grill would radiate off of it onto us. It was chilly, but we were determined. Our conversation lulled a little in the chill of the evening, and we were able to hear Jeff and Pam in the kitchen, chatting, I strained a little to hear what they were saying. I couldn't hear the exact words, but Jeff was digging in the liquor cabinet, and I got the gist that Pam thought that the Purple Haze wasn't going to cause a great enough haze... i.e., there wasn't enough alcohol in it for her, so Jeff was going to make her a martini.
Meanwhile, we continued to work on the grilled pizza. I spread the sesame soy sauce over the crust. The sauce was a little runnier than I thought it should have been, and the crust wasn't exactly level, so we lost some sauce over the edge of the crust and into the fire. I twirled the crust a couple of times, thinking that maybe it was the grill that wasn't level, but it appeared that it was the crust itself. One side was thicker than the other, causing a ramp of sorts that the sauce ran down and into the interior of the grill.
The remainder of the ingredients were artistically placed over the top, and we closed the lid to let them cook.
I started with the mushroom Swiss concoction. It was rich, smokey (from the bacon, I assume), and earthy. Baking the assembled sandwiches had restored the crunchiness of the original saute that had been lost overnight. It was cheesy, toasty, and gooey. Later, I realized that I missed a step in the construction of the sauce. Apparently, I was supposed to add some milk to it, but I had completely missed that entire portion of the instruction. I thought it was lovely, anyway, and other than the difficulties I had spreading the overly thickened "sauce" over the french bread, I didn't miss the milk at all.
The tenderloin pizza was very good, too. My only complaint (okay, one of my few) was that there was nothing holding all of the ingredients together. One bite and all of the baby corn, and the onions, and sometimes the beef itself, rolled off the pizza. It was a little salty, and, thinking back, I may have put more sauce on than called for. I have a hard time keeping all of the measurements halved for these recipes that make two pizzas (I only make one). It was still good. The blueberries offset the saltiness of the sauce, and the corn helped. Jeff originally expressed some concern about the "weirdness" of having blueberries on the pizza, but agreed that it wasn't as weird with all the ingredients together.
Everything was wonderful - the food, the company, the conversation. It is always a pleasure.
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