Pairings for the L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Franc-Merlot
I mentioned that many of the people who tasted this Cabernet Franc-Merlot craved a burger with it. It is a wine that goes well with meat, but unlike the Left Bank style, which leans heavily on Cabernet Sauvignon, it does not NEED meat. Someone mentioned pairing this with a black bean chili, which pulled out the earthier notes in the wine. This is food-friendly.
We paired the Cabernet Franc-Merlot with Beef Roulade and Melting Potatoes
I found a lovely recipe for spinach and mushroom stuffed beef.
The recipe called for 3 to 3 ½ lbs of beef tenderloin. I will admit, cuts of meat are not my thing. I’m learning, but I had to research a bit. Well, for those of you who, like me are not up to speed on your cuts, a filet mignon is cut from the tenderloin. So I was looking at 6 to 7 filet mignons before they cut them up. Hmmm…that sounds pretty expensive. Of course, when we went to look, I sent Michael to the butcher shop, deciding that way he could determine if that was in our budget today. He returned with a top sirloin roast. I figured, why not? Let’s try it.
If you do know your cuts of meat, you are probably shaking your head right now. This roast did not lend itself to being pounded out. I did the whole, cut it almost in half, and open it like a book thing. It was still too thick, so I tried it again, cutting and folding in open like a map. Finally, it was at a size that worked. We prepared the stuffing of bacon, spinach, shallots, and mushrooms. I spread this on the meat and rolled it up and tied it. This cooks at 350 for 30 minutes, then we increased the heat to 450 and cooks for another 15 minutes until the interior is about 125°. I’ll be honest, this was the timing for the tenderloin. This cut didn’t need this much time. It was fine, but not as rare as I would have liked. We did make the accompanying red wine sauce for this which was so good!
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