Just because Valentine's Day has come and gone doesn't mean it's too late to cook something special for the ones you love. I found a recipe for "Duca d'Alba" (fillets of beef in a mushroom sauce) in an old Great Recipes from Great Restaurants cookbook that my grandma gave me ages ago. It's from Frank Zani's French restaurant (though why the name of the recipe is Italian I'll never know), the "Villa Victor." I don't know if the place exists anymore, but this Duca d'Alba is fantastic.
The dinner was surprisingly simple to make. If I hadn't been trying to satisfy a hungry baby, folding fancy dinner napkins, and digging our China out of storage all at the same time, it would have been a very low-key dinner. I served our Duca d'Alba with mashed potatoes, because the sauce is an excellent gravy. The original recipe calls for 1/2 c. Madeira wine, but my husband and I are LDS, so I substituted diluted red wine vinegar and it tasted delicious. So, without further ado, here is the recipe!
Duca d'Alba
Serves 6
6-1/2 tbsp. butter
1-1/2 tbsp. flour
2 c. beef broth
6 fillets (steaks) of beef, cut 1-1/2 inches thick
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 c. red wine vinegar diluted with 1/4 c. water
1 shallot, chopped, or 2 tsp. chopped onions
Melt 1-1/2 tbsp. butter in a small saucepan; blend in 1-1/2 tbsp. flour until brown. Gradually add the broth, stirring steadily to the boiling point. Reduce heat to low; cook on low for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in a large skillet. Quickly brown the fillets in the butter and remove. Saute the mushrooms in the remaining butter for 5 minutes. Return the fillets and add the salt, pepper, vinegar, onion, and brown sauce. Cook over low heat until your beef is as rare or well-done as you like it.
And don't feel compelled to tell your family that you didn't slave over a hot stove all day long. :)
2 comments:
Yum! I'll have to give it a try. Check out my short ribs recipe that I have posted right now. It is a simple recipe and really good.
I will have to get Rudy Zani Frank Zani's son who is 86 in nov to cook it for me. Rudy and his dad owned the Villa Victor in Syosett Ny from 1949 till 1964. He is a real close friend of my family and even at 86 that guy can cook. They are of Italian descent coming from Italy near the french border. They operated villa victor as a French restaurant. I would realy like a copy of that cookbook or any of the recipes from the villa victor. Rudy lost almost all his memories from the villa victor in a fire at his Home in maine a couple years back. He will love checking out this recipe thank you and thank gram also......
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