Cooking the New Year's beast...

It's always hard to plan my "Christmas dinner," partially because I have an open house all day on Christmas, so it doesn't happen that day.  I then planned to do it on the following weekend, which was this past weekend, when we all started getting sick, one at a time.... so that didn't happen.  I then had a brilliant idea!  I'll just cook it on New Year's Day....voila!  New Year's Day Dinner 

Beef tenderloin has to be one of the easiest and friendliest of meats to cook.  It takes less than an hour in the oven, the flavor just can't be beat, and you can pretty much cut it with a fork...You just have to do a few things before it goes into the oven.  To begin with, you need to remove as much of the silver skin that is on the outside of the meat as you can.  The easiest way to do this is to take a small sharp knife and get the blade right under the skin.  When you have some of the skin to hold on to, pull up on it as you shave the blade along underneath.  

Sprinkle some Montreal Steak seasoning, onion powder, and garlic powder all over the entire roast, pressing it on to the sides.   The last step is to tie the roast together, to get it as uniform in shape as possible.  The thin end of the roast can be folded under and tied.

I cut a bunch of individual pieces of string and tie the roast every inch or so.  You want it to be just tight enough.

Now it's time to braise the entire outside, getting a nice crispy coating.  The only pan that fit this beast was my griddle, so I pre-heated it to medium high.  Let each side sizzle for at least 5 minutes.  Make sure all sides are nice and brown.   Next stop, a 450 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes.  I want the internal temperature to be about 125 degrees for medium rare.  If you prefer your meat more cooked, adjust the internal temperature up to 130 degrees.   Once it reaches that temperature, I take it out of the oven, tent it with foil and let it sit for about 15 minutes.  Cut the strings off, and enjoy a small slice of heaven!

I served this with my really delicious potato "cookies" (just click on the cookies and it will take you to the recipe) and some sauteed broccoli... all in all a Christmas dinner that was well worth the wait!